Former Avalanche Forward Carl Soderberg Retires

Carl Soderberg may have left the NHL after his short second stint with the Colorado Avalanche a few years back, but he wasn’t done playing hockey. He went back to Sweden and played two more seasons for the Malmo Redhawks of the Swedish Hockey League.

Now, he’s calling it a career.

Soderberg, 37, announced his retirement from hockey on Tuesday. He said he knew Malmo’s final game in the Spring was going to be the last game of his career, but he wanted to let the summer play out.

The veteran of 597 NHL games now looks forward to spending more time with his family, and will start studying Business Management in the fall.

Soderberg had two stints with the Avalanche in his NHL career. His rights were acquired by the team right before the NHL Draft in 2015, and then he was signed to a five-year contract soon after. Outside of his second year (let’s all forget that 2016-17 season), he was a very valuable player for Colorado, averaging almost 46 points a season.

The organization re-acquired him for the playoff run in 2021, but it didn’t go nearly as well. Those would be the last games Soderberg would play in the NHL.

Of course, it’s remarkable that he played in the NHL at all, given what he was playing through. Back in 2006, an errant high stick struck his left eye, causing a detached retina. The end result was that he became legally blind in that left eye. He learned to play with limited vision, making it even crazier that he’s played professional hockey until the age of 37.

All things considered, what a career. 597 NHL games, 293 SHL games, and 219 HockeyAllsvenskan games. On top of that, he played in the World Cup, World Juniors, and won Gold at the World Championships.

Congratulations to Soderberg, who was always a man of very few words. Enjoy retirement.

Any favorite Soderberg memories out there? The great pass for the Rantanen overtime winner in 2019 comes to mind for me.