Three Moments That Defined Max Pacioretty’s NHL Career

When Max Pacioretty announced his retirement a year ago, it closed the book on a 17-season NHL career that began when Montreal selected him in the first round to a memorable final chapter with the Maple Leafs.

There were plenty of good moments along the way. But a few really stand out because they tell you something about the kind of player Pacioretty was. He was resilient. He was dependable. And when the moment got big, he usually wasn't afraid of it.

Here are three that come to mind.

First, Pacioretty came back after a 2011 injury.

Back in 2011, Pacioretty took that brutal hit from Boston's Zdeno Chara. He ended up with a cracked vertebra and a concussion. It was one of those moments where you wondered whether a player would ever be quite the same again. Pacioretty answered that question pretty quickly.

He didn't just come back. He came back better. He went on to lead the Canadiens in scoring with a career-best season, scoring 39 goals and putting up 65 points. He became a fixture on Montreal's top line and power play for years.

That's the part of the story I remember most. Coming back from an injury like that would have been enough. Coming back and turning it into a launching pad for the best stretch of your career said something about Pacioretty.

Second, Pacioretty became captain of the Montreal Canadiens.

Think about that for a minute. Pacioretty was drafted 22nd overall in 2007. He wasn't some can't-miss first overall pick who arrived in Montreal with the captaincy practically waiting for him. He had to work his way into that position. And eventually, he wore the “C” for one of the most storied franchises in hockey.

That tells you something about how he was viewed around the league and inside the Canadiens organization. During his prime, he was one of those players opponents had to worry about every night.

Third, Pacioretty played well in his final season with the Maple Leafs.

At 36 years old, playing his final NHL season with the Maple Leafs, Pacioretty scored a series-winning goal against Ottawa's Linus Ullmark in the playoffs. Not a bad way to finish a career.

That goal made him the second-oldest player in Maple Leafs history to score a series-clinching goal, behind only Joe Nieuwendyk. After stops in Montreal, Vegas, Carolina and Washington, Pacioretty somehow found himself in Toronto for one last memorable moment. You couldn't really script it much better.

Pacioretty hasn’t given up hockey.

Put it all together — the comeback, the captaincy and the storybook ending in Toronto — and you get 335 goals and 346 assists in 939 NHL games. Now Pacioretty has traded his skates for a coaching whistle at Michigan.

But for Maple Leafs and Canadiens fans, those three moments are probably a pretty good way to remember him.