Ex-Canucks forward Sutter calls it a career after failed comeback attempt with Oilers

It appears that Brandon Sutter’s final NHL game will be with the Vancouver Canucks after all.

Although Sutter had attempted to play in the NHL for the first time since the 2020-21 season with a professional tryout contract with the Edmonton Oilers, the 34-year-old forward announced his retirement from the NHL on Sunday afternoon.

Sutter played 13 seasons for the Canucks, Pittsburgh Penguins and Carolina Hurricanes, where he had 152 goals and 137 assists in 770 games.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity that [Edmonton general manager Ken Holland], Edmonton head coach Jay Woodcroft] and the Oilers organization have provided to me the past few weeks. You need to be 100 percent healthy to compete in the NHL, and although my health continues to improve, in consideration of my health and family, I am officially retiring from hockey,” Sutter said in a statement released by the Oilers. “Thank you to the Oilers, Canucks, Penguins and Hurricanes, as well as all my past coaches, trainers and teammates for the incredible experiences throughout my 13 seasons in the NHL.”

Sutter had been sidelined for more than two full NHL seasons due to long-haul symptoms of COVID-19, which began in the summer of 2021 after contracting the disease as part of a team-wide outbreaks suffered by the Canucks in the 2020-21 season.

He opened up about his struggles in March in an interview with Donnie and Dhali on CHEK TV.

“I started noticing difficulty breathing sometimes,” Sutter said. “I couldn’t really figure out what it was. When I really started ramping up my training in August, and skating and everything, I just started realizing there was no way I could do this. I started having all different kinds of symptoms. It’s bizarre and it’s frustrating because you’re with a group of guys that all got the same strain… we’re all connected with it, and no one else had any issue with it after a couple weeks.