After a very respectable 16-year career in the NHL, Nashville Predators defenseman Dan Hamhuis has announced his retirement from the NHL.
Per multiple reports Dan Hamhuis is retiring from the NHL after 16 seasons in the NHL, including eight of those with the Nashville Predators on two separate stints.
I know he was never a major superstar of the Predators and we all saw this coming, but I’m pretty bummed out to see Dan Hamhuis retire. He comes from the old days when this franchise was still an infant.
Hamhuis has always been a class act for the Predators and provided smart defensive play while amassing 174 points, and 356 points total in his NHL career.
It’s a truly commendable career for Hamhuis to play so many seasons and still provide quality defensive depth all the way to the end. He played in 60 games in his last season with Predators and most notably provided defensive steadiness by putting up 64 hits and 53 blocked shots.
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Hamhuis was never known as an offensive player by any means, but he did always do many other things well on the ice to prolong his NHL career to so many seasons. Playing 16 seasons in the NHL is a testament to how good of a true defenseman he is even after so many seasons on the odometer.
Hamhuis’ run with the Predators
Hamhuis was drafted by the Predators in 2001 when the franchise was still in its infancy. He came in instantly and helped make the Predators into a respectable defensive team.
Those early Predators teams didn’t have a lot of offensive weapons, but Hamhuis was a factor into the team being tough to score on.
After playing his first six NHL seasons with Nashville, Hamhuis moved onto to play for the Vancouver Canucks where his NHL career remained steady for several more seasons.
Following a brief stay with the Dallas Stars, Hamhuis eventually returned to play for the Predators on their bottom defensive pairing. He was clearly past his prime, but his contributions to the depth of the team and his veteran leadership shouldn’t be overlooked.
Hamhuis was on the Predators’ playoff roster for the Stanley Cup Qualifiers, but didn’t appear in any games. He was excited to get a chance to make one more run at a Stanley Cup when the Return-to-Play plan was announced, and it would’ve been awesome to see the Predators go deep and Hamhuis get some quality minutes on the ice to go out with a bang.
The departure of Hamhuis comes as no surprise for many, and it leaves the Predators with more roster space available for their defensive depth going into next season.
This might leave the door open for Alexandre Carrier or another defensive prospect to crack the opening night starting lineup as the Predators have other likely departures on their defense coming with free agents Yannick Weber and Korbinian Holzer.
Hamhuis goes out in the top-10 among active NHL players in games played with 1,148 (insane) and seven seasons where he played 80-plus games. Really an ironman of the sport.
Join us in wishing Dan Hamhuis a happy and well-deserves retirement. A class act and one of the classic Predators players from the early days.