After a 15 year career, winger Patrick Sharp has officially retired from the NHL.
After a career at the University of Vermont, Sharp was selected in the 3rd round (95th overall) by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2001 NHL draft. Sharp, a Winnipeg native, made his debut with the team the next season. After two and one half seasons with the team, Sharp was traded midseason to the Chicago Blackhawks with Eric Meloche for a 3rd round draft pick and Matt Ellison. That began the success of Sharp\’s career. Sharp went on to spend 10 seasons in Chicago, scoring twenty goals seven times and thirty four times. He also won three cups with the team. But a huge cap crunch forced Chicago to trade many of their better players. Michael Frolik, Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd, Brandon Saad and Sharp are prime examples of that. Sharp was traded with defenseman Stephen Johns to the Dallas Stars for defenseman Trevor Daley and Ryan Garbutt. Currently, only Johns remains with the organization they moved to after the trade. Sharp spent two seasons in Dallas, and saw age creep up on him in his second Dallas season, which he managed to appear in just 48 games. As a 36 year old free agent, Sharp decided to return to Chicago for an 11th season there, on a one year, $800,000 deal. After that season, which was this season, he announced his retirement.
In all, for the Chicago Blackhawks, Dallas Stars and Philadelphia Flyers, Patrick Sharp scored 287 goals and 333 assists for 620 points in 939 games. That\’s a pretty solid NHL career.
CarterHud 