Stars Veteran Joe Pavelski Reveals That He Doesn't Plan On Playing Next Season

Dallas Stars forward Joe Pavelski — one of the best American-born players of his generation — has announced that he is calling it a career after his Stars fell to the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Final.

Pavelski just wrapped up his fifth season with the Stars (appearing in all 82 regular season games) after playing the first 13 seasons of his NHL career with the San Jose Sharks.

However, Pavelski said he doesn't plan to suit up next season and has had that plan for a while.

Pavelski will turn 40 over the summer and has 1332 regular season games under his belt. In that time he has posted 376 goals and 592 assists for a total of 1,068 points. That puts him 6th all-time for points by an American-born player and seventh all-time in games played for an American.

However, despite all of Pavelski's accomplishments he never won a Stanley Cup (which is why I was a little bummed when the Stars got knocked out) despite appearing in two Cup Finals and seven-conference finals.

Joe Pavelski reportedly has plans to call it a career after the Dallas Stars were eliminated in the Western Conference Final. (Photo by Glenn James/NHLI via Getty Images)

He was third on the list of players with the most games played behind Ryan Suter (his teammate in Dallas) and Brent Burns (his teammate in San Jose).

"Since day one since he’s been in here, he’s meant everything to our group — on the ice, off the ice, all our golf games, he’s improved all of those," Pavelski's teammate Tyler Seguin said after the Stars were eliminated by the Oilers, per The Dallas Morning News. "Just an amazing person to have in here."

Stars captain Jamie Benn echoed Seguin's sentiment.

"[He’s meant] the world," Stars captain Jamie Benn said. "All-time teammate, person, great leader, good friend."