Former 1st Round Pick Appears to Call it a Career After Turning Down Offer to Sign With Canadian Team
Veteran NHL defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk is apparently done with the league after he turned down an offer to sign with a Canadian team.
This report comes from New York Rangers reporter Larry Brooks.
Brooks, who has covered the Rangers for several decades, released an article today about the former Rangers blueliner, saying that his time in the NHL is probably over.
He revealed that one of the western Canadian teams offered Shattenkirk a deal at some point recently, specifically naming the Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks, and Edmonton Oilers.
The Oilers have been involved in rumors for basically the entire season as they try to shore up their defense, so there is a pretty good chance they were the team to make the offer.
That being said, Shattenkirk will be turning 36 in a couple of months and appears to be ready to dedicate his time to his family.
The former 1st round pick appeared in 952 regular season NHL games split among seven different clubs.
The majority of his games came with the St. Louis Blues where he recorded 59 goals and 258 points in 425 matches. In total, he scored 103 goals and 484 points in his career.
Notably, he won the Stanley Cup in 2020 with the Tampa Bay Lighting and was a fairly substantial part of that team as well. In 25 playoff games, he recorded 3 goals and 13 points, both career highs in the playoffs.
With this report, the Oilers will simply have to look elsewhere for help on the back end.
That may be a good thing too though as there are no guarantees he could have performed well at this age. Last season he was just okay in a bottom pair role for the Bruins and likely would be worse this year.
Be sure to stay tuned to see what comes next for Shattenkirk.
