Sharks' Logan Couture officially ends NHL playing career

Curtis Pashelka, Bay Area News Group on Apr 15, 2025

Published in Hockey

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SAN JOSE, Calif. — San Jose Sharks captain Logan Couture officially ended his NHL playing career on Tuesday, unable to get over a groin-area injury that robbed him of a chance to leave the sport he’s loved since he was a young boy on his own terms.

Couture and general manager Mike Grier held an afternoon news conference on Tuesday at SAP Center to make the announcement.

“My career of playing hockey has come to an end,” an emotional Couture said. “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.”

Dealing with an often debilitating condition called osteitis pubis, Couture, 36, missed all but six games since the start of the 2023-24 season. Couture’s last NHL game came on Jan. 31, 2024, when the Sharks played the Anaheim Ducks at the Honda Center.

Couture, who is not officially retiring, is at the end of the sixth year of an eight-year, $64 million contract he signed with the Sharks in July 2018. He is still owed $13 million in salary over the next two seasons.

By not retiring, Couture’s $8 million salary cap hit will remain on the Sharks’ books in each of the next two years. The team also avoids a costly cap recapture penalty from the NHL. The Sharks will likely list Couture as being on long-term injured reserve for the next two seasons.

Couture was drafted ninth overall by the Sharks in 2007, started his NHL career in 2009, and has played in 933 games in the NHL, all with San Jose. On the Sharks’ all-time list, Couture is fifth in games played, fourth in points (701), third in goals (323), and fifth in assists (378).

In his rookie season in 2010-2011, Couture had 32 goals and 56 points in 79 games and finished second in Calder Trophy voting. His rookie goal total remains a Sharks record.

Couture, though, saved his best for the postseason.

While Couture averaged .751 points per game during the regular season, he also scored 101 points in 116 career playoff games, an average of .870 points per game that’s tops in team history.

With Couture, the Sharks made the Western Conference final in 2010, 2011, 2016, and 2019. In the Sharks’ run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2016, Couture led the NHL with 30 points in 24 playoff games. He was the Sharks’ co-leader in playoff goals in 2011 and 2013, with 14 goals and 20 points in 20 playoff games in 2019.

Internationally, Couture, teamed up with several other Sharks players, helped Team Canada win gold at the World Cup of Hockey in Toronto in 2016.