An NHL career which should've been far greater than it ultimately was has been ended prematurely because of concussion injury.
Paul Kariya, who played for the Anaheim Ducks, Colorado Avalanche, Nashville Predators and St. Louis Blues, formally announced his retirement today in an interview with the Toronto Globe and Mail, where he laid blame on his long history of concussion injuries for the end of his career, as well as expressing serious criticism of the NHL's inability to protect its players from head shots leading to injury, and in penalizing those responsible for these type of hits.
It is indeed a sad end to a career in which Kariya was for several years in the late-1990s one of the NHL's top players, but ultimately saw his career go into a slow decline because of his injuries.
Kariya's best years were with the Anaheim then-Mighty Ducks, where he teamed with winger Teemu Selanne to form one of the most feared one-two offensive punches in the league.
In five of t...
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