Pittsburgh Penguins: Pascal Dupuis' Retirement Hits Team Hard

Pittsburgh Penguins winger Pascal Dupuis’ impact goes far beyond his on ice contributions. Though his health requires him to step away from hockey, there is every reason to expect he will continue to be a part of the Pens.

Yesterday afternoon I woke up from a nap and checked my phone for news. I had only been asleep for half an hour and yet in that time I had missed a surprising, though not wholly unexpected, announcement. The Pittsburgh Penguins announced that Pascal Dupuis was done playing hockey.

Dupuis’s decision to hang up his skates for good was bittersweet. An adored figure in Pittsburgh both on and off the ice, the winger’s choice to stop playing hockey will have a lasting impact on the team. Of course, the most important thing in the long run is Dupuis’ health.

Dupuis is 36 years old. He has a wife and four young children. In the hockey world, he’s a grizzled veteran. Even without health issues he would likely have been nearing the end of his career.

In the real world, he’s a comparatively young father whose family comes first. “One-hundred percent. It’s all about them,” he said during his press conference Tuesday. “If all this was on me or if I was taking a selfish approach I would probably still be playing.”

Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Undoubtedly, it’s difficult to step away from the fruitful career he’s spent his entire life building, even for reasons as noble as these.

Undrafted out of juniors, he ended up playing in 871 NHL games over 15 years. Since he joined the Penguins in the 2007-2008 season, he has had the most shorthanded goals of any player on the team. He helped bring the Stanley Cup to Pittsburgh in 2009. Over the past two seasons, the Pittsburgh Penguins record is 22-8-3 with Dupuis in the lineup.

There’s a reason they call him “Super Duper.”

On the other hand, those stats from the last two seasons are troubling due to the sheer lack of numbers. Dupuis played in only 33 games in the last two seasons combined. He tore his ACL in late December 2013 and, prior to his surgery, was diagnosed with a blood clot near the tear.

Ever since then, Dupuis tried to make his return.

Over… and over… and over. Each time, a new obstacle appeared in his way: A slapshot to the back of the neck. Another blood clot, this time in his lung rather than his knee. The almost consistent use of blood thinners to prevent any more clots from forming, which prevented him from playing a sport as contact-heavy as hockey.

It has been a laundry list of misfortunes for the much-loved winger.

Though his presence on the ice was sorely missed, Dupuis himself was never far away. A constant figure in the locker room after games, he was always there to congratulate players or offer insight – or lighten the mood – just as he always did when he was in the lineup. Ideally, this is how he’ll spend many more years contributing to the Pens.

Dupuis said in his media scrum that he wanted to remain in Pittsburgh helping out in any way that he could. Considering he’ll still be on the payroll for the remainder of this season and the next, that shouldn’t be too difficult. After that runs out, it will be interesting to see if he is offered an official position with the team, like the Penguins did with former defenseman Sergei Gonchar after terminating his tryout agreement earlier this year.

“First roommate ever, best teammate I ever played with. Thanks for everything you did for me thru all those years. Congrats on an incredible career @duper9. #loveyou” – Kris Letang (@kletang_58)

It’s clear his teammates would like to see Dupuis stick around in some way, considering him as an invaluable member of the Pittsburgh Penguins organization. Players like Nick Bonino, Steven Oleksy, Ben Lovejoy, and many others who were teammates of Dupuis’ offered their support. Sidney Crosby said he didn’t know if he could have gotten through his career so far without Dupuis by his side – perhaps one of the highest compliments in sports – and that he’s “gonna miss him a lot. He’s a great guy.”

Kris Letang posted a picture of Duper raising the Cup on his personal Instagram. He captioned it “First roommate ever, best teammate I ever played with. Thanks for everything you did for me thru all those years. Congrats on an incredible career @duper9. #loveyou”. Marc-Andre Fleury, part of Dupuis’s merry band of French-Canadian pranksters, said of Dupuis, “I’m glad that he went out on his terms, that he played until he wanted to, and that he’s still feeling healthy now – that’s the main thing.”

But this raises a worrisome question: did the glorification of playing through injuries and always maintaining a “tough guy” persona play a part in keeping Duper on the ice longer than he should have been?

It’s no secret that hockey in particular esteems the idea of being a “real man” and a “real athlete.” Remember the Boston Bruins’ playoff run a few years ago when Gregory Campbell broke his leg on the ice and still finished his shift? That same year, Patrice Bergeron played through broken ribs and punctured lungs.

Pittsburgh Penguins: Pascal Dupuis’ Retirement Hits Team Hard

By Kayleigh Jackson | Dec 9, 2015

Pittsburgh Penguins winger Pascal Dupuis’ impact goes far beyond his on ice contributions. Though his health requires him to step away from hockey, there is every reason to expect he will continue to be a part of the Pens.