Veteran NHL defenseman Ben Lovejoy announced his retirement during a Wednesday evening appearance on NHL Network. Lovejoy played 544 games over an 11-year NHL career, scoring 20 goals and 101 points total.
The 35-year-old Lovejoy made his NHL debut in 2008, going back and forth between the Penguins and Pittsburgh’s AHL club until he was traded to Anaheim in 2013. He spent nearly two seasons with the Ducks before he was sent back to Pittsburgh, where he featured on the Penguins’ 2016 Stanley Cup-winning roster. After winning the Cup, he signed with the Devils in 2016 and was then traded to the Stars in exchange for defenseman Connor Carrick and a third-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft.
Lovejoy’s career is notable for his 2017 pledge to donate his brain to concussion research in partnership with the Concussion Legacy Foundation, one of the leading research organizations on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease that can only be diagnosed posthumously. Lovejoy was the first active NHL player to pledge to donate his brain to concussion research, and as of this spring, he said he intends on keeping that promise.
