Barret Jackman retires as member of St. Louis Blues

Longtime St. Louis Blues defenseman Barret Jackman signed a one-day contract with the team and retired from the NHL.

The 35-year-old Jackman played 876 games in the NHL, scoring 29 goals and notching 157 assists. Last season Jackman played 73 games with the Nashville Predators. It was his only season he did not play with the Blues.

Jackman signed his deal at a ceremony at Scottrade Center with current members of the Blues there along with some notable team alumni including Al MacInnis, Brett Hull, Chris Pronger, Bernie Federko and Wayne Gretzky.

“There’s no feeling like playing in the NHL,” Jackman said. “It’s a privilege (Kelly Chase) talks about in his speech all the time at every event to walk through the doors as an alumni. You earn it, and you earn it with respect in the game and I owe everything to this game and I just want to thank everybody for being here and would really like to thank the fans too for making me part of St. Louis and there’s no place I can think of retiring and putting down the roots like St. Louis. The fans have been amazing here. I apologize I wasn’t able to bring a Cup here, but I know it’s coming.”

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Jackman finishes his career ranked second all-time in games played for the Blues at 803 behind Federko’s 927. The Blues selected Jackman with their first-round pick in 1999 and he immediately made an impact when he arrived in for the 2002-03 season.

He was a plus-23 and notched 19 points as he won the Calder Trophy – beating future NHL All-Stars Henrik Zetterberg and Rick Nash.

Jackman was a former Blues’ alternate captain and an important member of St. Louis’ leadership group.

“He didn’t care about ice-time. He didn’t care about accolades. He cared about the team,” Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said. “And it’s easy to say that but it’s very difficult to follow that through.”

Even though he wasn’t considered an offensive defenseman he was able to transition from the plodding ways of the 2004-05 lockout to the more free-flowing systems of the NHL after the rule changes to open up the game. This helped with his longevity in the league and in St. Louis as well.

“He was such an important part, the player aside, in holding people on the team, on the ice, in the organization, accountable,” coach Ken Hitchcock told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “You had no choice. His mental and physical toughness, his ability to play through injuries, the ability to play through tough situations, he was here through everything. He was here for the good days, the bad days, and back to the good days again. We all know what type of player he was but he was way bigger than that here because he made sure everybody was held accountable because you saw him limp in and still play games. I think he was a quiet leader that did it in a way that you really appreciate.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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