Ales Hemsky officially retires.

This announcement seems like it was a little late in the making, but here it is. 

According to an announcement from the National Hockey League Alumni Association veteran NHL forward Ales Hemsky has now officially retired from professional hockey after a stellar career in the league. The news comes as very little surprise given that we have not seen Hemsky on the ice for the past two seasons, but presumably given the timing of this announcement Hemsky was in fact trying to work his way back into the NHL during those two seasons. 

Hemsky, a former 1st round pick (13th overall) of the Edmonton Oilers at the 2001 National Hockey League Entry Draft, had a very solid career in the NHL but unfortunately that career was unquestionably derailed by significant injuries. Hemsky would go on to play in a whopping 845 games over his career, collecting 174 goals and 398 assists for a combined total of 572 points in the NHL. His best seasons came as a member of the Edmonton Oilers, early on in his career before the injuries piled up, with his best campaign arguably being the 2005 - 2006 season where he recorded 19 goals and 58 assists for 77 points over 81 games that season.

Unfortunately as I stated Hemsky would be severely hampered by injuries in his career with his final two seasons being disaster campaigns that were completely derailed by his physical health. In his final season with the Dallas Stars Hemsky appeared in just 15 games and in his final season in the NHL, which came the very next season, Hemsky managed to appear in just 7 games for the Canadiens over the course of the entire campaign. 

We hope that Hemsky has fully recovered from those injuries and hopefully he finds great success in the next chapter of his life.