NHL Veteran Surprises Everyone, Leaving Hockey Behind to Coach Women's Soccer

Hockey Sverige's Robin Olausson has reported that longtime NHL defender Anton Stralman has retired. He has joined the Swedish women's soccer team Skultorps IF as a coach, although neither he nor the NHL Alumni Association have officially announced this, according to Olausson.

The 38-year-old used to be among the NHL's more underappreciated two-way defenders. Three years after being selected 216th overall by the Maple Leafs in 2005, Stralman made his NHL debut. He was traded to the Flames after he covered depth bottom-pairing duties for two seasons, and in the 2009 offseason, he was traded to the Blue Jackets once more.

In 2022-2023 Stralman played eight games for the Bruins, scoring zero points and earning a minus-3 rating. In addition, he contributed four assists in 17 games with the Providence Bruins.

Stralman played 48 games for HV71 of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) this past season, scoring two goals and 16 points. This came after he played for the Bruins organization during the 2022-2023 season.

Stralman had 63 goals, 230 assists, and 293 points in 938 NHL games over 16 seasons, playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Columbus Blue Jackets, New York Rangers, Florida Panthers, Arizona Coyotes, Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning.

Regretfully, he missed Tampa's three consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Finals between 2020 and 2022. When he once again became a free agent in 2019, he priced himself out of Tampa and signed a three-year, $16.5 million deal with the intrastate rival Panthers. His NHL career came to an end at that point, and by the second year of the contract, he had dropped out of the top four.