Penguins’ Dupuis retiring for health reasons | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 

DENVER — The game of life, and family, finally beat out hockey for Pascal Dupuis.

The Penguins winger, who won the Stanley Cup with the team in 2009, was a fixture on Sidney Crosby’s wing and was the heart and soul of the locker room, announced his retirement Tuesday for medical reasons in the lobby of an old practice rink on the edge of Denver.

Mr. Dupuis missed the majority of last season after a blood clot traveled from his leg to his lungs, but he managed to find medication that allowed him to stage a comeback despite the risks.

The health scares started to accumulate this season, though, and he revealed Tuesday it was chest pain that forced him to leave last week’s game in San Jose after two periods. Mr. Dupuis reached a final decision Monday, putting his wife and four children above his love for the game.

“One hundred percent of it. It’s definitely all about them,” said Mr. Dupuis, wearing a Penguins hooded sweatshirt as his teammates skated on the rink behind him. “If all this was on me, or if I would’ve taken a selfish approach to this, I’d probably still be playing.”

It was an emotional day for the Penguins, particularly for the veteran’s longtime line mate, Mr. Crosby, who became choked up when considering the mental toll the condition must have taken on his friend.

“I’m sure that emotionally it’s been really tough for him for a long time. I know it has, I’ve seen it,” Mr. Crosby said. “I think there’s probably some relief that he doesn’t have to worry about that anymore.”

General manager Jim Rutherford said he had several long discussions with Mr. Dupuis, including one on Monday, and saw this day coming.

“Our discussions hadn’t got to that point yet, but in my mind I could see it coming,” Mr. Rutherford said. “It’s always been his decision, which it should’ve been. But personally, in the off-season, I felt he was taking a big risk by trying to play.

“Like I said, he’s very determined. He wanted to help the team. He gave it his best shot, but just medically he can’t do it anymore.”

Mr. Dupuis said the testing that occurred every time something went wrong included CT scans and radiation, which further added to the risk of blood clots.

The team’s medical staff offered a brief explanation.

“Despite playing on a medical protocol that has worked for other players in the NHL, we feel that the risk of Pascal playing with his condition and the side effects of the tests to monitor him are just not in the best interest of his long-term health,” Dharmesh Vyas, the team physician, said in a news release.

Mr. Dupuis, 36, had played in 18 of the team’s 26 games this season, fewer than he expected to when he mounted his comeback last summer.

Being on blood thinners was part of the protocol doctors prescribed to get him ready to play.

“We knew that maybe I was going to have to miss games on a blocked shot or a cut, but not experiencing what I did,” Mr. Dupuis said. “I went in this at 100 percent. I gave myself the chance to play and be in the lineup and to go through that protocol and to try it and to see what it was going to bring me.”

The general manager said it will be difficult to replace him on the ice, but that was a secondary problem for the time being. The Penguins can place Mr. Dupuis on long-term injured reserve because he is retiring for medical reasons. That should create some flexibility when making a decision on how to handle filling his place on the roster.

“I haven’t gotten to that point. I’m more concerned about the person right now,” Mr. Rutherford said.

“We’ll figure this out going forward. He will leave a big hole from what he does for the team. You know, from the off-ice things, to the dressing room, to being on the bench in between periods, plus what he does on the ice — I’m not going to find the same player as he is.”

Winger Chris Kunitz said he had long talks with his friend over the past few months.

“We always pointed to the emphasis that we worry about him as a person, not as a hockey player,” Mr. Kunitz said.

“It’s definitely crossed your mind every time you see him block a shot, every time you see him get hit on the wall. It wasn’t always that easy.”

The old familiar top line of Dupuis-Crosby-Kunitz was briefly reunited for that San Jose Sharks game. And though it lasted only two periods, it was a fitting gesture in retrospect, Mr. Crosby said.

“Yeah, I mean you don’t necessarily know that at the time, but I think that looking back on all the times we have played together to get that opportunity, yeah, I think it was nice and probably fitting,” Mr. Crosby said.

He struggled to put into words what his friend means to him.

“I don’t know if I could get through it, to be honest with you,” Mr. Crosby said. “I’m going to miss him a lot. Great guy.”

Ron Cook: Penguins almost surely will find spot for Pascal Dupuis

Penguins notebook: Rookie Daniel Sprong will return to lineup tonight

From November / Ron Cook: It\'s the thrill that keeps Dupuis going

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