ANN ARBOR \u2014 Veteran forward Max Pacioretty, who spent three seasons as captain of the Montreal Canadiens and spent the 2024-25 campaign with the Toronto Maple Leafs, has retired from the NHL after 17 seasons.<\/p>\n
The University of Michigan, where Pacioretty spent the 2007-08 season before turning pro, announced Tuesday that Pacioretty was joining the Wolverines men’s hockey program as a special assistant to the head coach.<\/p>\n
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Pacioretty was selected by the Canadiens in the first round, 22nd overall, at the 2007 NHL draft. He became the 29th captain in Canadiens history before the 2014-15 season.<\/p>\n
After 10 seasons in Montreal, Pacioretty was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights in September 2018 for a package that included current Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki. He had 448 points (226 goals, 222 assists) in 626 regular-season games and 19 points (10 goals, nine assists) in 38 playoff contests with the Canadiens.<\/p>\n
After brief injury-riddled stints with Carolina and Washington following four seasons in Vegas, Pacioretty joined the Maple Leafs on a professional tryout before the 2024-25 season and made the team out of camp.<\/p>\n
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He ended up with 13 points (five goals, eight assists) in a season limited by injuries and roster decisions. But he rediscovered his scoring touch in the playoffs, putting up three goals and five assists in 11 games after starting the post-season in the press box.<\/p>\n
The 36-year-old from New Canaan, Conn., reached the 30-goal mark six times in his career. He had 335 goals and 346 assists over 939 regular-season games and 28 goals and 30 assists over 89 playoff appearances.<\/p>\n
He was an all-star with Vegas in 2020 and won the Bill Masterton Trophy with the Canadiens in 2012, after his 2010-11 season was cut short in March when he sustained a neck fracture and a grade 2 concussion after a hit by Boston defenceman Zdeno Chara.<\/p>\n
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“After 17 seasons in the NHL, I’m excited to begin this next chapter with Michigan Hockey,” Pacioretty said in a statement released by the Wolverines. “I’m so thankful for the teammates, coaches and fans who have been a part of my journey.<\/p>\n
“Hockey has given me so much, and now I have the opportunity to help develop the next generation of players.”<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 30, 2025.<\/p>\n
The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANN ARBOR \u2014 Veteran forward Max Pacioretty, who spent three seasons as captain of the Montreal Canadiens and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[3333,49,48,12363,743,448,10099,82,75071,746,767,3642,91959],"class_list":["post-181991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-boston","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-max-pacioretty","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-nhl","tag-nick-suzuki","tag-sports","tag-the-university-of-michigan","tag-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-vegas-golden-knights","tag-washington","tag-zdeno-chara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}