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Yesterday, Matt Stajan announced his retirement from hockey. In his 1003 NHL games played over 14 seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Calgary Flames, Stajan created a lot of great memories on and off the ice. There are a lot of things Leafs and Flames fans think about when they think of the great career Stajan had, and I’ll share some of them below, but I wanted to share with you my first and most powerful memory from Matt Stajan’s career.
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This was my desktop background for years on the family PC. I printed it out and had it in my room for a while, too. I think I used it in an elementary school project about our favourite things or something back in the early 2000s. Regardless, it is the first thing I think about when someone mentions Matt “Doc” Stajan, Alexander “six shooter” Steen, or Kyle “the kid” Wellwood. It is my deep and dark secret that you all now know.
From more professional voices, here are some stories from Lance Hornby and Mark Giordano about Stajan, along with a classic Sportsnet Stat.
Matt Stajan announces retirement after 14 years. Fine career and one of his best moments as a Leaf might have been the night of Mats Sundin’s return with Canucks when Stajan refused to go into the faceoff circle so crowd could keep cheering Sundin.
— Lance Hornby (@sunhornby) December 3, 2019
Mark Giordano’s statement on Stajan’s retirement is perfect. pic.twitter.com/EooBNNP4Ii
— Sammy Hudes (@SammyHudes) December 3, 2019
Did You Know? Matt Stajan played the 10th-most career #NHL games by a player drafted by #LeafsForever in franchise history (1,003).
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) December 3, 2019
Congratulations on your retirement Young Mats!
Congratulations to @MattStajan18, who after 1,003 games played in 14 NHL seasons, retires today with a reputation as an effective two-way centreman and quality teammate wherever he went.
— NHLPA (@NHLPA) December 3, 2019
Full announcement and statement from Matt here: https://t.co/mqf19T2xRV pic.twitter.com/KnBsTSrfWO
Congrats on a great career, Matt Stajan! @NHLdotcom has more ➡️ https://t.co/KVkW8GQRo3 pic.twitter.com/pwcFcmYcgY
— NHL (@NHL) December 3, 2019
Leafs Branches
- The Leafs played a pretty close game with the Philadelphia Flyers last night... until the very end. [Pension Plan Puppets]
- The preview from that game was interesting as it covered the salary cap situation with the Leafs. I’ll have a post in a couple hours outlining the situation a little more starkly. [Pension Plan Puppets]
- Nick Shore is on waivers. [Pension Plan Puppets]
- Egor Korshkov did a no-no and got suspended one game by the AHL for boarding. He had to fight the teammate of the guy he hit after the play, too. [Pension Plan Puppets]
Other Branches
- My good friend Lauren Kelly is in her fourth year at Ryerson University for sports media and her practicum project was creating a website that is “dedicated to telling the stories of diverse individuals in the sport media industry.” I highly encourage everyone to read and share the stories that speak to you. Mine is there, you can ignore that. Lauren’s project could not have come at a better time. [Limitless Media]