Veteran NHL goaltender expected to retire after rejecting latest contract offer,

It seems like a veteran National Hockey League goaltender may walk away from the game in part due to all the damage his body has taken over the course of his NHL career.

On Saturday night Sportsnet's NHL insider Chris Johnston made a very interesting reveal when he announced that long time NHL goalie Steve Mason was seriously considering retiring from professional hockey. Now to be clear Mason has not officially announced his intentions and as far as I know he hasn't even hinted at the possibility of retirement, at least not publicly, but Johnston had some pretty compelling circumstantial evidence to support his claims. According to Johnston the free agent goaltender currently remains a free agent entirely by choice and not due to lack of interest from organizations are the National Hockey League.

"There's been interest in him including a contract  offer this week that Steve Mason elected to turn down," said the NHL insider.

Based on the language used by Johnston it sounds like there is interest for more than just one team around the league, but that may not matter if Mason himself feels that the best move for his long term future is to retire now and avoid piling more punishment onto his body. It may also be that the offers he received simply aren't worth it in his estimation, Johnston indicated during the segment that the offer Mason had received was a relatively low-end type of deal.

"It was a low offer on a backup kind of role."

Now while that certainly has to be considered it does not sound like money is the primary motivating factor for Mason here. If anything it sounds like based on Johnston's comments, that Mason is genuinely concerned about his long term health and what putting further damage on his body could mean for him in the futre.

"He had a ton of injuries last year in Winnipeg, he had concussion and knee issues, he’s been through a lot in his career, and the sense is he may actually be done in the NHL despite the continued interest, just because of every thing his body has been through."

Add to the injury woes the fact that Mason is coming off arguably the worst stretch of his professional career and you begin to see a full picture of why the former Calder Trophy winner is genuinely considering retirement in spite of being just 20 years of age. After signing a two year contract with the Winnipeg Jets Mason managed to appear in only 13 games due to a series of injuries that occurred during his time in Winnipeg, and when healthy his performance wasn't exactly light the world on fire. His 3.24 goals against average and .906 save percentage simply were not good enough and with that on top of the injuries the Jets decided to cut their losses.

Mason was traded to the Montreal Canadiens who never had any intention of using him in their line up, opting instead to buyout his existing contract and make him a free agent. That is where Mason remains at this time and by the sound of things that may be where he remain for good.