Hemsky retires after 15 NHL seasons

Ales Hemsky retired from hockey Friday.

"I realized it's probably time to enjoy my kids," Hemsky told The Athletic this week. "The doctors were saying I shouldn't play anymore. It took me a long time to get peace with that. It's hard when you do something for so long. You know you can play somewhere, but you can't. That's the hard part."

The 36-year-old played 11 of his 15 seasons and 652 of his 845 NHL games as a forward for the Edmonton Oilers. He also played for the Ottawa Senators and Dallas Stars before playing his final seven NHL games for the Montreal Canadiens in 2017-18.

The announcement was made by the NHL Alumni Association.

Hemsky scored 572 points (174 goals, 398 assists) with an NHL career-high 77 points (19 goals, 58 assists) in 2005-06, his third season. He scored 17 points (six goals, 11 assists) in 24 games of the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs, when the Oilers made the Cup Final, losing to the Carolina Hurricanes in seven games.

"The whole year, it took us a little while to figure it out. But we had a great team," Hemsky said. "... We had everything. We had great leaders. We had great funny guys. We had guys with great work ethic. We had it all. It [kind of] clicked in the end."

Oilers executive Kevin Lowe said, "Ales could have been the MVP if we would had won."

The No. 13 pick in the 2001 NHL Draft, Hemsky made his NHL debut for Edmonton on Oct. 10, 2002. He won a bronze medal for the Czech Republic at the 2006 Torino Olympics, and played in the 2014 Sochi Olympics and World Cup of Hockey 2016.

Hemsky had surgery on each of his shoulders, a torn hip labrum, and sustained a concussion during his career.

"He was a kid that really loved the game and had a passion for the game," Oilers teammate Jason Smith said. "As he became a more experienced player, that will grew. That competitiveness grew. ... He pushed through a lot of different injuries that a lot of guys might have said they've had enough. He just kept pushing and became a real good player."