Joe Pavelski announces retirement: Stars center played 18 seasons, has most playoff goals by American player

Joe Pavelski is officially calling it a career. During an appearance on SiriusXM's NHL Morning Skate on Tuesday, Pavelski announced his retirement after 18 seasons.

When the Dallas Stars were eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs in June, Pavelski hinted he was likely hanging up his skates.

"I don't want to say this is official, but, you know, the plan is not to be coming back. There'll be more to come on that," Pavelski said at the time. "Everything's still raw, like nothing official. There'll be more words and I'm going to need a little bit of time to really put it together and figure it out that way."

Pavelski was originally selected in the seventh round of the 2003 NHL Draft by the San Jose Sharks . He tallied 1,068 points (476 goals, 592 assists) in 1,332 career regular-season games. The star center's 74 playoff goals are the most by an American-born player in league history and the most among active players.

During the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Pavelski became the 25th player to compete in 200 playoff games.

Pavelski had planned to remain with the Sharks during the 2019 offseason, but ended up signing a three-year, $21 million contract with the Stars that summer. In each of the last two offseasons, Pavelski signed one-year deals to remain with the Stars. He ended up playing in all 302 regular-season games during his time with Dallas.

In his final NHL season, Pavelski racked up 27 goals and 40 assists in 82 regular-season games.