Canes' Jesper Fast announces retirement from professional hockey

Eleven-year NHL veteran Jesper Fast announced his retirement from professional hockey earlier today.
Fast, 33, played his final four seasons in Carolina and was a playoff hero for the Hurricanes in the spring of 2023. He sustained a neck injury in the final regular season game of the 2023-24 season vs. the Columbus Blue Jackets and did not compete in Carolina's recently-concluded campaign.
Fast was one of several prominent veteran players who did not dress for any games during the season due to injury. Torey Krug , T.J. Oshie and Tucker Poolman were also on long-term injured reserve in 2024-25.
Fast spent his first seven seasons in the NHL with the New York Rangers and earned their alternate captain sweater from 2017-20.
"I never took for granted the privilege of playing in the best league in the world," said Fast. "I am grateful for all of the teammates, coaches, staff and fans from the Rangers and Hurricanes who made my time in the NHL so special, and for my family for everything they did to help me achieve and live my dream."
The native of Nassjo, Sweden was an unheralded sixth-round draft pick by the Rangers in 2010 , but surpassed a vast majority of more celebrated members of that draft class, currently ranking 24th with 94 goals and 248 points in 703 career games.
Fast debuted with the Rangers in October of the 2013-14 season, but did not record his first point until dishing out an assist in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals vs. Philadelphia.
He scored 55 goals and added 92 assists for the Rangers from 2013-20 and came up clutch in the playoffs, tallying three goals in both the 2014-15 and 2016-17 post-season.
Fast was a five-time recipient of the Rangers' Players' Player Award from 2015-2020.
He signed with the Hurricanes as a free agent ahead of the 2020-21 season. Fast played in all 82 games that season and produced career highs in goals , points and plus/minus . Canes' players tabbed him as the winner of the Steve Chiasson Award for that season. The award honors "the player who best exemplifies determination and dedication while proving to be an inspiration to his teammates through his performance and approach to the game."
In his final playoff appearances in 2023, Fast became just the fourth player in Carolina franchise history to produce multiple overtime winners in a single postseason. He scored in overtime in Game 2 of Carolina's first round series vs. the New York Islanders and found the net again in the series-clinching Game 5 of the Canes' second round victory over the New Jersey Devils.
Field Level Media

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Hindustan Times

an hour ago

• Hindustan Times

Top NHL draft prospect Schaefer honors late-mother in not letting personal tragedies define him

When the time comes for defenseman Matthew Schaefer to take the stage at the NHL draft inside the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles this week, the top-ranked prospect won't be climbing the stairs alone. HT Image There's no doubt in Schaefer's mind his late mother Jennifer will be accompanying him in spirit. It will stand as a joyous moment for the 17-year-old Erie Otters player celebrating the person who's been at his side for every step even after she died of cancer some 16 months ago. 'I love talking about my mom, because I talk about the happy memories instead of the sad memories,' Schaefer said. He recalled the times Jennifer suited up in goalie equipment to face shots from him and his older brother. Even when sick, she'd muster the energy to play mini-sticks in the family basement. 'She's always with me in spirit. I know she has a front-row seat to every game,' Schaefer added. 'I just want to carry on her legacy and character and the person she was.' His mother's poise and strength are reflected in shaping Schaefer's-upbeat perspective in the face of other losses and setbacks. Some two months before Schaefer's mother died, the mother of his billet family was struck and killed by a train in what was ruled a death by suicide. In December, he was in Ottawa representing Canada at the world junior championships when Otters owner and Schaefer's mentor, Jim Waters, died of a heart attack. Schaefer broke his collarbone at the tournament, forcing him to miss the final three months of the season. Through it all, Schaefer refuses to be defined by pain and tragedy. 'My mindset has changed a lot with everything. Just seeing what my mom went through, having a smile on her face with cancer kind of trying to bring her down, but she wouldn't let it,' he said. 'She's the strongest person I've ever known.' A testament to Schaefer's perseverance: The 6-foot-2, 183-pound player from Hamilton, Ontario, has remained atop NHL Central Scouting's rankings among North American skaters with the two-day draft opening on Friday. Though the debate between ranking Schaefer over high-scoring OHL Saginaw Spirit center Michael Misa was close, scouting director Dan Marr said Schaefer earned the nod because of the development he showed when healthy. Marr referred to Schaefer as 'stealing the show' at Canada's Under-18 summer camp before scoring six points in captaining Canada to win the Hlinka/Gretzky Cup in August. After missing the start of the OHL season with mononucleosis, he posted 22 points in 17 games with Erie before being sidelined at the world juniors. 'He's one of the guys I think teams can safely interpret what you see is what you get,' Marr said of a two-way, fluid-skating defenseman who is responsible defensively, a play-maker offensively, and labeled 'a special talent' by Central Scouting. What's unmeasurable is Schaefer's character. 'He's just a breath of fresh air,' Marr said. It's a quality Otters forward Malcolm Spence saw in Schaefer every day as a roommate. 'He's a guy that you wouldn't even know what he's gone through,' Spence said. 'He wakes up every day with a smile on his face.' Schaefer's engaging personality was on display throughout the pre-draft combine in Buffalo, New York, followed by him joining top prospects in attending Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final in Florida. In skipping the combine's bench-press and pullup testing portions, he urged his fellow prospects to succeed. In Florida, Schaefer recalled how his hotel room wasn't ready upon arrival, so he took advantage of a sunny day. 'We got a little tan going on, a couple of us,' he said. 'I'm happy with that. I'm pretty light as it is. I have a hockey rink tan, as I'd say.' The only thing fazing him was being awestruck in meeting several NHL players, including Florida's Brad Marchand and Edmonton's Connor McDavid, a former Otters player who went No. 1 in the 2015 draft. Schaefer elicited a laugh when saying he was rooting for the Oilers, before noting he failed to mention that in meeting Marchand. There is a serious side to Schaefer, evident during the combine. He made a point to visit a Buffalo-area outreach group for grieving youths. Gwen Mysiak, co-founder of Western New York Compassion Connection, was impressed by how Schaefer engaged an audience that included about 15 youths, ranging in ages 7 to 17. 'When he walked through these doors, you sensed the genuine nature he has, and how passionate he is to make a difference with all his pain,' she said. 'To have peer support coming from a young man like that on the precipice of his NHL career was a gift,' added Mysiak, whose husband died two years ago. 'I will be watching the NHL draft for the first time in my life because he really captured our hearts.' Schaefer said the visit was the least he could do, noting he skipped his high school graduation ceremony to be there. 'There's young kids that are going through tough times. A lot of people love to keep it in, and I want to try to put their minds at ease in any way,' Schaefer said, before reflecting on his experiences. 'You know, if love could have saved them, they would have lived forever. That's a good saying I go by,' he said. 'But everything happens for a reason in life. Makes me super stronger. And I want to help people.' NHL: /hub/nhl This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.

Indian Express

10 hours ago

• Indian Express

The story of how Fernando Rivas, Carolina Marin's coach, triggered a French revolution in Badminton

'No, tengo a Carolina.' No, I have Carolina. Said at speed in Spanish, this was like Shashi Kapoor's 'Mere pass Maa hai' mic-drop moment from the movie, Deewar. This was in response to being asked about Chinese champions in badminton. Fernando Rivas, the famously pathbreaking badminton coach of Carolina Marin, who took her to an Olympic title at Rio, and to a World Championship final after two ACL surgeries (she has 3 titles and 1 silver from 2014 – 2023), and back to the brink of an Olympic final before injury cruelly stopped her at the 2024 Games, had been speaking at the Yonex Legends Series right before Paris. He recalled the first stirrings of ambition that brought unprecedented success to a completely badminton-unknown nation, Spain. Now, over the years, Rivas, with multiple PhDs in topics central to sport but also skimming its periphery, has gone on to introduce new doctrines in elite training and high performance. This last week he announced he will move on from leading the French evolution in badminton, a sport that's most benefitted from Paris hosting 2024. Rivas worked with the French for three years and has put them on such a firm footing in leveraging sports science to achieve peak performance, that Europe is suddenly looking like an exciting, heaving hotbed of talent in a sport with its heartbeat in Asia. Rivas' announcement, after cordially ending the stint with the French, ended cryptically. 'It's time to return home where new and exciting projects await,' he wrote. Surely, 32-year-old Super Marin wasn't planning yet another comeback – though no one would be surprised if she did. But 'it's time to return….' had riffs off 'No, tengo a Carolina' (No…I have Carolina to turn into champion) from all those years ago. Rivas had been watching an Olympic men's doubles final – though it's not clear if this was Athens or Beijing or London. 'I was actually watching a men's doubles match, which was amazing. But in the middle of the third set, I told my colleague 'I have to be there. I have to be in the Olympic final,'' the Spaniard Shifu told the Legends Series. The colleague was gobsmacked. 'And she asked, 'Are you going to coach the Chinese?'' given their predominance in Olympic finals back then. Rivas calmly declared, 'No, I have Carolina'.' Along with Pullela Gopichand, Tai Tzu-ying's coach, Lai Chien-cheng and Ratchanok's longtime mentor Patapol Ngernsrisuk, Rivas formed a formidable counter to the Chinese women's singles domination of a decade and half ago. While there's lots of guessing about what exciting projects could possibly beckon Rivas back home ('It's time to…' is fairly ominous if there's another Marin, looming on the horizon), but what Rivas has also helped kickstart hugely is the French surge. 'A major European power that will become a global force,' Rivas declared soon after Thom Giquel and Delphine Delrue's Indonesia Open triumph (like winning a tennis Slam) in mixed doubles. Rivas had scribbled that he fondly remembered Giquel and Delrue's first European championship gold, followed by women's doubles victory of Anne Tran and Margot Lambert, a partnership whose dedication and development filled him with particular pride. Even as Marin healed from a second busted knee, Rivas had been busy putting up the French scaffolding that ensured they ended with most medals at the last European Championships. Rivas would call 'valuable', Toma Jr Popov's 'against the odds qualification for Paris', as well as Alex Lanier's first ever Super Series victory in 2025. 'The bittersweet taste of the 2023 European mixed team championship silver in Aire-sur-la-lys lingers, where we nearly beat Denmark in a thrilling match,' Rivas would write. At the Paris World Championships in the last week of August, Rivas will throw his last dice for the French, looking for a world's medal for the first time since Chinese-origin Pi Hongyan won at Hyderabad in 2009. It's not that Denmark is sliding, though it doesn't boast the quality across categories. Kenneth Larsen, now with Malaysia, is plotting quite an upsurge in Asia, and Anders Antonsen ensures that after Viktor Axelsen (who himself ain't quite done yet), the crowns are not directly headed to the likes of Li Shifeng and Kunlavut Vitidsarn. But you had to be stuck in the past to not notice how France are on the rise – and with a fairly steady, sustained program that's not a one-off. They're in here for the long haul, and Denmark felt the sting when pushed in the Euro finals, though 8 medals to top the charts including two titles of 5, was the arrival of a new power in town, with English badminton waning. Former French doubles shuttler, a World No 13 in his day, Vincent Laigle, leads the general direction and worked closely with Rivas who helped standardise elite performance after the French built uniformity in systems starting 2008. At the Paris Worlds in two months, Rivas and the team has ensured 15 French contenders will be in action, and fighting for podiums, not just making host numbers. Just like for Marin, Rivas deployed strategic growth charts that have seen Lanier and Delrue-Giquel win a Super 750 and Super 1000 title in recent times. But French badminton was always in an advanced orbit. India's Paralympics world champion Pramod Bhagat recalled the sophisticated drills that were at play for agility, strengthening and simply to improve reflex reactions. Giquel's recovery from a scary injury a few years ago had some cutting edge tech. But it was Rivas' independent streak, and ingenuity not unlike Gopichand, Lai chien and Patapol, that was crucial. Quite simply, he didn't believe in aping the Asians and Chinese blindly. Cyrille Gombrowicz, a director at French Federation, FFBaD, had noted, 'I thank Fernando Rivas for the direction he has greatly contributed to defining and implementing in the service of high performance. I remember that we will not succeed in beating the Asians by copying their method but by asserting our own singularity. The holistic approach to performance materializing in our own ecosystem is his legacy.' At Los Angeles, the French will likely compete not just as former Olympic hosts, but aim at badminton titles. No one quite expected Marin to be the force she eventually turned out to be till she claimed her first world crown at Copenhagen in 2014. It's unclear yet if Spain has unearthed more shuttlers like her, though the country is ambitiously challenging the might of NBA, nothing less, with a new basketball league that will stop talent drain to America. Their badminton chapter is far from done, as long as Rivas is back in the mix. China has little to worry about in the immediate future. But a little further down the timeline, things get a little ominous with the new-Denmark building up in France. Rivas raised Marin to slay Asian might and largely succeeded. Now in France, his blueprint gets 3D printed, scaled up and scaling the peaks being imminent. Le crack, the French called him in their testimonials – a wizard, a bit of a genius.

Time of India

13 hours ago

• Time of India

Elliotte Friedman offers insider scoop on what Sam Bennett could demand in NHL free agency

Sam Bennett hints at staying with Panthers as Elliotte Friedman reveals potential contract details (Getty Images) Florida Panthers forward Sam Bennett may not have signed the dotted line yet, but he left little to the imagination when it comes to his NHL future. During the team's wild Stanley Cup celebration at Miami's E11EVEN nightclub, the 2024 Conn Smythe Trophy winner grabbed the mic and made his intentions crystal clear in a crowd-pumping moment that quickly made headlines: 'I ain't F---ng leaving!' Elliotte Friedman teases Sam Bennett's possible price tag ahead of NHL free agency frenzy The explosive declaration came just over a week before Bennett is set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, pending any pre-deadline contract extension with Florida. Though the veteran center sounded confident and committed, the reality is that no agreement has been made official yet. Bennett's agent, Darren Ferris, quickly addressed the rumors, clarifying, 'At this time, no contract has been signed. When there's something official, we'll share it accordingly.' That statement did little to quiet the buzz but confirmed that fans will have to wait a bit longer for pen to meet paper. Still, signs point to a likely reunion. According to NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, discussions are heating up between Bennett's camp and the Panthers. Speaking on SN 590, Friedman reported that negotiations are centering around a long-term extension in the $7.5 to $8 million average annual value (AAV) range. Adding to his analysis in his 32 Thoughts column, Friedman wrote, 'As the sun rose, everyone was pumping the brakes on Bennett extension talk, warning not to take such liquified announcements too seriously. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch CFD với công nghệ và tốc độ tốt hơn IC Markets Đăng ký Undo It's hard to believe he'd make such a bold proclamation without knowing where this was going, but nothing's done until it is done.' What's reassuring for Panthers fans is that General Manager Bill Zito seems determined to retain his top stars. During a recent appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Zito emphasized, 'We're going to spend to the cap… The Viola family ownership has empowered us to try to do everything we can to have the best team we can. So we're going to spend it all.' That statement aligns with Florida's goal of keeping its core intact — not just Bennett, but also other high-profile free agents like Brad Marchand and Aaron Ekblad. As July 1 approaches, the expectation is clear: Sam Bennett wants to stay, the Panthers want him back, and all that's left is turning intent into ink. Also Read: Contract extension on the cards? Sam Bennett drops major hint on staying with Panthers after playoff success Follow all the live updates, scores, and highlights from the India vs England Test match here . Game On Season 1 kicks off with Sakshi Malik's inspiring story. Watch Episode 1 here