BREAKING: Three-time Stanley Cup champion announces RETIREMENT for SECOND time

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Ryan
April 5, 2023 (11:41)

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When someone makes it to the National Hockey League, fans think they've just made it there on skill alone. What most of us dont see is the lifestyle that these players have lived their entire lives.

Countless extra hours of working out, outside of the arena, the daily nutrition, the early morning practices, the late night games, the time spent with your teammates, there is a lot of things that goes into making a professional hockey player and their lifestyle that we don't get to see.

For many players, when they finally hang up the skates, depression starts to set in because this lifestyle is all they've known since they were young, and now that the game is over, they don't know what to do.

In this players case, when he retired from the NHL, he was back playing professional hockey just one year later. That player is, three-time Stanley Cup champion Niklas Hjalmarsson.

After spending the majority of his career with the Chicago Blackhawks, winning his three cups, he was traded to the Arizona Coyotes, where he spent the final 4 seasons of his NHL career.

After retiring from the NHL at the end of the 2021 season, Hjalmarsson only took one season off from playing before he came out of retirement to play for HV71 in the SHL.

Hjalmarsson played in 17 games this season, recording 3 assists, but unfortunately recently took a thundering hit, which knocked him out for awhile with a concussion.

Emil Larssons tackling p� Niklas Hjalmarsson #SHL #Örebrohk #HV71
🎥 C More pic.twitter.com/XJYlyJewVV� SwehockeyGIFs (@swehockeygifs) January 22, 2023

The 35 year old has now officially announced that after this concussion he will not be playing anymore, but it doesn't mean he is leaving hockey:

"It has taken a while, Last week was the first time I felt completely one hundred percent. I was wondering and a little scared when it went on for so long."

"I will see if I come back to another role in the future. I love hockey, that's what I've done and that's what I can do. Some kind of coach would be exciting to try."