Reinventing Himself: What's Max Pacioretty’s Next Chapter

Every once in a while, a hockey story comes along that is really about something bigger than hockey. Max Pacioretty’s retirement might be one of those stories.

Pacioretty retired from professional hockey in May 2026.

Pacioretty’s playing career is over. After 17 seasons in the NHL, he decided in May to walk away from the game. He finished with 939 regular-season games, 335 goals and 346 assists. He was a captain in Montreal, played important roles in Vegas and Carolina, spent time in Washington and finished his career with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

There were apparently still NHL teams interested in bringing him back for another season. He could have kept going. Instead, he chose something different.

Related: Whatever Happened to ex-Maple Leafs D-Man Martin Marincin?

Pacioretty has returned to the University of Michigan to work in its program.

Pacioretty has now returned to where his hockey journey really began, joining the University of Michigan as a special assistant to the head coach. He played there before Montreal selected him 22nd overall in the 2007 draft. Now he gets to help develop the next group of players coming through the program. I find that part of the story more interesting than the retirement itself.

We tend to think of careers as straight lines. You start somewhere, work your way up, reach the top and eventually retire. But that isn't really how most successful careers work. The people who remain useful and engaged for a long time are often the ones who learn how to reinvent themselves.

That has always been something I valued in my own career as a university professor. After more than 40 years in the classroom, I never really thought of the job as doing the same thing over and over again. The world changes. Students change. Research changes. The questions we ask change. If you want to keep contributing, you have to be willing to change with it.

Pacioretty isn't trying to recreate his playing career in another NHL role.

Instead, he’s taking what he learned as a player and trying to apply it in a completely different role. He'll have to learn how to communicate with young players, how to teach rather than simply perform, and how to understand the game from a different perspective. That isn't always easy.

Being good at something doesn't automatically make you good at teaching someone else to do it. But experienced people have something younger coaches and players don't have yet: perspective. Pacioretty has lived through winning, losing, leadership, injuries, pressure, and the constant adjustment required to stay in the NHL for 17 years.

Now he gets to reinvent himself again. And maybe that's the real lesson here. A career doesn't have to end when one chapter ends. Sometimes the most interesting part begins when you decide to write the next one.

Related: Have the Maple Leafs Stopped Chasing the Wrong Thing?