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Former Flyers captain Primeau retires from NHL
2006-09-15
Keith Primeau, the former captain and emotional leader of the Philadelphia Flyers, retired from the National Hockey League because of continuing post-concussion symptoms. Primeau trained furiously in recent months with hopes of returning to the team but was not given medical clearance to start training camp, which begins Thursday. "This was very difficult for me to accept," Primeau said. "I discussed it with family and friends before making the decision to retire from the game that I love." Primeau met with medical people in the United States and Canada in recent months and received treatment, but the concussion symptoms persisted. "We tried everything conventional and avant-garde," Flyers team physician Gary Dorshimer said. "But when you still have symptoms with exertion, you can't be cleared to play." Primeau, 34, has battled concussion problems over the last several seasons, with his most recent incident occurring in Montreal on October 25, when he absorbed a blow to the head from Alexander Perezhogin. Primeau managed to play in only two more games before going on injured reserve in late October with post-concussion syndrome. He eventually surrendered his captaincy and announced in February that he was hanging up his skates for the season. Now he has decided to hang them up for good. "The concussions had a cumulative effect," Primeau said. "When I look back I thought the right thing to do was to play through a concussion. If I knew then what I know now, I would have done things differently." Primeau missed 28 games in the 2003-04 season after suffering a concussion, yet still helped the Flyers reach the Eastern Conference finals, where they lost in seven games to Tampa Bay. The retirement of Primeau clears about three million dollars under the salary cap for the Flyers. They made an attempt to replace him by signing restricted free agent center Ryan Kesler to a 1.9 million-dollar offer sheet on Tuesday, but the Vancouver Canucks decided to hang on to Kesler and matched the offer. Primeau, who spent the last six years with the Flyers, recorded 266 goals and 353 assists in 909 career games. He had one goal and six assists in nine games last season. Primeau entered the NHL as the third overall pick of Detroit in 1990 and also spent time with Carolina. His best season came in 2000-01, when he had 34 goals and 73 points in 71 games for the Flyers.
Former Flyers captain Primeau retires from NHL (2006-09-15)Flyers' Forsberg may be ready for opener (2006-07-11)NHL: Dallas 3, Carolina 2 (ot) (1999-03-22)
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