Eddie Lack announced the next steps in his hockey career Wednesday evening. The 31-year-old said he was stepping away from the game due to lingering hip trouble on his personal Twitter account. Lack last played for the Calgary Flames and New Jersey Devils in 2017-18. He started the 2018-19 season with the Binghampton Devils, New Jersey’s AHL affiliate, but only managed to play in six games.
Update on my career. Thank you pic.twitter.com/n9piLTDLun
— Eddie Lack🇸🇪🇺🇸🇨🇦 (@eddielack) August 14, 2019
Eddie Lack Steps Away
Lack debuted in the NHL at the tender age of 26 with the Vancouver Canucks in 2013-14. He would play 82 games across two years with Vancouver, winning 34 games while posting a respectable .917 save percentage and 2.43 goals-against-average. He finished with votes for the Calder trophy that season, ranking 16 among all players. Overall, his career numbers of .909 and 2.62 in save percentage and goals-against-average respectively, are right in line with those early returns.
Lack never really caught on due to multiple hip problems. After two seasons in Vancouver and then two with the Carolina Hurricanes, Lack only played in eight more games. He missed most of the 2018-19 season while trying to recover from these injuries. Few things are sadder than a decent start to a career derailed by pain and mobility issues. He is still just 31, so it’s not impossible we could see the 6’4″ Swede at some point in the future.
What’s Next For Lack
If there is a silver lining to this news, it is that he has accepted the position of head goalie coach with Arizona State University. This is a tremendous opportunity for the Sun Devils as they are fresh off an entry into the NCAA Men’s Hockey Tournament. They lost to Quinnipiac, but 2019 represented the first playoff-birth in program history. Having an actual NHL veteran behind the scenes is a huge potential boost for recruiting and development purposes. Lack will continue his rehab at the same time with the hope of returning to the NHL down the road.
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