After 19 years within Detroit Red Wings organization, Niklas Kronwall has retired from professional hockey.
One of the last remaining pieces of the Detroit Red Wings dynasty is departing the ice. Defenseman Niklas Kronwall has announced his retirement after 15 years in the NHL. With the Red Wings, he won a Stanley Cup back in 2008. Kronwall will be joining Detroit’s front office.
It seems like only yesterday Martin Havlat was getting scraped off the ice after getting “Kronwalled”. How time has flown by. After 15 glorious seasons of wrecking players with his vicious check that was affectionately known by fans as getting “Kronwalled”, the master himself is retiring.
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Kronwall was drafted 29th in the 2000 NHL entry draft and spent three years in Sweden until coming over in the 2003-04 season, officially starting his NHL career. Known for his great two-way play with and without the puck, he quickly became a top-four defenseman for the Red Wings and a fan favorite.
During his professional hockey career, he won gold in the world juniors with Sweden in 1998, Gold with Sweden at the Olympics in 2006 and the 2006 World Championships making him a member of the “Triple Gold Club.”
Kronwall also won the Stanley Cup in 2008 where he led all defencemen in scoring with 15 points in the those Stanley Cup playoffs.
As of his retirement, he sits third in goals, assists, points, and games played all-time by a Red Wings defensemen. Kronwall had six seasons with at least 35 points and only missed the playoffs in three out of 15 years.
As a Red Wings fan growing up, I grew an affinity towards Kronwall that led me to wear the #55 on every jersey for every sport. In 2015, when the Red Wings and the Tampa Bay Lightning met in the playoffs, Kronwall was suspended for that game 7 after hitting Nikita Kucherov.
When Nicklas Lidstrom retired back in 2012, he was the one to take over as the Red Wings’ best defenseman. While he was no Lidstrom, Kronwall was a stable force on the blue-line, helping the team make the playoffs even when the back-end around him was crumbling around him.
The past couple of seasons he has dealt with lingering knee pain that has caused him to miss time in the past while still managing to play 79 games the last two seasons. As one of my favorite players to watch, it is sad to see him go.
The good part though is that he isn’t going too far, as he will move right into management with the Wings as the new adviser to general manager Steve Yzerman. He replaces former teammate Kris Draper, who is now the director of amateur scouting.