Paul Kariya, the first player ever drafted by the then-Anaheim Mighty Ducks in 1993 and a one-time NHL superstar, has announced his retirement.
One too many hits to the head was the cause, as the left wing risks brain injury with another concussion.
Kariya, whose jerseys are still worn into the Honda Center despite his having left the team after the 2003 Stanley Cup finals, is not the only popular former Duck who called it quits Wednesday.
]
Center Todd Marchant, who spent the final six of his 18 NHL seasons with the Ducks, also announced his retirement Wednesday. However, he'll stay with the franchise as a player development coach.
Marchant finishes his career with 186 goals and 498 points in 1,195 games. Those are solid numbers. Yet, scoring machine Kariya had a stunning 402 goals and 989 points in 989 games.
But Marchant has something Kariya doesn't: a Stanley Cup ring, earned in the Ducks' 2007 championship.
His close ties to Anaheim are remarkable given he once refused to come here. After spending most of the first half of his NHL career with the Edmonton Oilers, Marchant signed in 2003 with the Columbus Blue Jackets. His pact included a no-trade clause, something he exercised in November 2005 when a trade was set up with the Ducks.
The Blue Jackets went on to waive Marchant–twice–before the Ducks claimed him.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.
One Reply to “Paul Kariya, Former Anaheim Ducks Star, and Todd Marchant, Current Center, Retire”