Goaltender Curtis McElhinney, a 13-year veteran of eight NHL teams, announced his retirement Wednesday.
McElhinney, 38, most recently played for the Tampa Bay Lightning and served as the No. 2 goalie on back-to-back Stanley Cup champion teams. He minded the net for 30 regular-season games in his two-year Lightning stint, going 12-13-5 with a 2.97 goals-against average.
“I certainly didn’t map my career out this way, but looking back on it now, I’ve been pretty fortunate,” McElhinney told NHL.com Wednesday. “It was an incredibly long career, caught a lot of breaks along the way that allowed me to stay in the NHL. I can’t complain about it, it certainly worked out pretty well in the end.”
Tampa Bay did not sign him back following the 2020-21 season. With the regular season drawing near, McElhinney said he was prepared to play one more season but didn’t receive any offers to his liking.
The journeyman was drafted by the Flames in 2002 and spent his career with Calgary (2007-10), the Anaheim Ducks (2010-11), the Ottawa Senators (2010-11), the then-Phoenix Coyotes (2011-12), the Columbus Blue Jackets (2013-14 to 2016-17), the Toronto Maple Leafs (2017-18), Carolina Hurricanes (2018-19) and Tampa Bay.
McElhinney retires with a career 94-95-20 record, a 2.83 goals-against average, a .907 save percentage and 12 shutouts over 249 games (197 starts).
–Field Level Media