Sharks captain Logan Couture ends his hockey career because of debilitating injury

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Logan Couture began dreaming of playing in the NHL as a 3-year-old carrying around a stick nearly everywhere he went.

After playing 15 seasons and more than 1,000 games in the regular season and playoffs, Couture can no longer play hockey because of a debilitating injury that has sidelined him for nearly 15 months.

“My career of playing hockey has come to an end," Couture said Tuesday. "I’m not physically able to play anymore. It’s tough. It sucks. But it is what it is. I loved and cherished every single moment that I got to play in this league. The NHL is everything that I thought it would be when I was a kid.”

Couture's stellar career spent entirely with the San Jose Sharks came to a disappointing end as he has been unable even to skate January 2024. That led to the decision to officially stop trying to play in hopes that his physical condition can improve enough for him to play with his two young children.

The 36-year-old Couture has missed all but six games since the start of the 2023-24 season because of a debilitating condition called osteitis pubis, or inflammation in the joint between the left and right pubic bones.

Couture last played a game in the NHL on Jan. 31, 2024, and said he never got close to getting back on the ice with his teammates.

“The mental side of it is tough,” he said. "It’s similar to when you lose in the playoffs. It’s like you run into a brick wall and the season ends and then you don’t know what to do. With this, it’s a little bit different because it’s physical. When it’s at its worse, there are days when I’m pretty sore. You can’t really do a lot. I’ve got two young kids. So a lot of thoughts were going through my mind. ... But I’m in a good spot right now. I’ve come to a peace with it the little while we tried everything and it didn’t work.”

The career featured many high moments from a player known as one of the most clutch performers, especially in the postseason when he came close to carrying the Sharks to an elusive Stanley Cup title.

General manager Mike Grier called Couture “one of the greatest players” in Sharks history. His will to win and deep desire made him captain of the Sharks for the last five seasons and earned universal praise from scores of teammates who either came in person to his news conference or delivered video messages.

“Clutch goals. Clutch plays,” longtime teammate Patrick Marleau said. "When I think a Logan, I just think of a complete player. Last minute of game, wherever the faceoff is, he’s on the ice. It doesn’t matter if it’s in D zone, offensive zone, neutral zone. He’s the guy, you know he’s going to go out there and he’s going to compete and get the job done.

Couture has two years remaining on the eight-year, $64 million contract that he signed in July 2018, and is owed $13 million in salary over the next two seasons. Couture will not officially retire and continue to get paid, while counting $8 million on San Jose’s salary cap in each of those seasons.

Couture missed the first 45 games last season because of the injury before returning to play six games in January. That made the injury worse and he has been shut down since then and hasn’t played or practiced with the team.

Couture had been a stalwart in San Jose and was one of the few remaining ties to the team’s successful runs in the 2010s. He was named captain of the team at the start of the 2019-20 season.

He had 323 goals and 378 assists in 933 career games and was a postseason star. He has 48 goals and 53 assists in 116 playoff games and led all players in postseason goals in 2019 with 14 and in postseason assists (20) and points (30) in 2016.

He said his best memories were scoring the empty-net goal to clinch the Western Conference Final at home against St. Louis to send the Sharks to the Stanley Cup for the first time and the epic comeback from 3-0 down in the third period to beat Vegas in Game 7 in the first round in 2019.

“If you’ve ever been to a nightclub and sat beside speaker for a couple hours, and then you leave that nightclub and you’re on the street and your ears are ringing, and you just can’t hear what anyone’s saying," Couture recalled of that night. “That’s what it was like between the third period and overtime.”

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