He was just 11 games shy of 1,000 in the NHL but Paul Kariya has decided to call it a career.
The 36-year-old North Vancouver native, who played for the Penticton Panthers in the 1990-91 and 1991-92 seasons, sat out last season due to post-concussion symptoms and felt he could not come back for another year.
Now symptom free, Kariya has decided to leave the game rather than be forced from it.
Kariya played 15 seasons in the NHL with Anaheim, Colorado, Nashville and St. Louis. He totaled 989 points, including 402 goals, in 989 games. With the Panthers, he scored 91 goals and 153 assists in 97 games
The 5-foot-11, 180-pound sniper won the Hobey Baker Award as the top player in US college hockey in 1993 and won the NHL's Lady Byng Memorial Trophy as most sportsmanlike player in 1996 and 1997.
In an article by Globe and Mail writer Eric Duhatschek, Kariya was critical of the NHL's stance on dangerous hits like the kind that led to his concussion issues.
