Oscar Kelfbom and Jonathan Bernier are free agents this year but have been injured for at least a year now and will likely never play again. Klefbom last played in the 2020 season and got a chronic shoulder injury and had to get surgery in 2021 and has to be in rehab for a period of time that is unknown and is still not likely too come back. Jonathan Bernier played 10 games with the New Jersey Devils in the 2021-22 season and got injured in December of 2021. He had a hip injury which required him to get hip surgery and hasn't played since. Now he is in rehab and will likely never play again. Both these players were placed on LTIR for the remainders of their contracts and are now free agents

Bernier has now retired

Here are a few more players. Joonas Donskoi, Jake Gardiner, Carl Hagelin and Ondrej Kase. Joonas Donskoi was a member of the Seattle Kraken before getting a severe concussion in September after colliding with Kole Lind. Donskoi played in the 2021-22 season and was a very respectable player. He is a free agent and will likely never play again as he is still dealing with concussion symptoms. Next is Jake Gardiner, who was a solid player for the Hurricanes until he got a very bad hip injury. He last played in the 2020-21 season. He was cleared to play this season until he faced another setback in his rehab and will likely never play again. Next is Carl Hagelin. Carl Hagelin was a very consistent player and was one of the fastest players. He last played in the 2021-22 season. He suffered an eye injury in a practice and nearly lost it. He now cannot see in one of his eyes. Next is Ondrej Kase. Ondrej Kase was a very solid goal scorer but he was very injury prone. He has had 4 concussions in his playing career and had one this year in his season opener and missed the whole season. He is still suffering the affects of the concussion and will likely never play again due to how many concussions he has had. All of these players are sitting on the free agent list.

Carl Hagelin has retired and so has Donskoi. KAse has signed a contract overseas

Jakub Voracek was one of the best players in the NHL at one point until 11 games into the year he was high sticked which gave him a concussion and is unlikely to play again due to his many concussions already. He started the season great with the Blue Jackets with 1 goal and 5 assists for 6 points as a mentor on a young Blue Jackets Team. Even the year before he had 56 assists with the Blue Jackets which meant he was still able to play. He might make a return but it is very slim because there hasn't been that many updates about him and the Blue Jackets had to trade him while he was injured because they couldn't keep his contract. He is now on the IR with the Arizona Coyotes

Voracek has officially retired

Shea Weber is one of the greatest d-man of this generation in the NHL and will most likely make the HOF. The former captain of the Montreal Canadians led the team to the Stanley Cup final in the 2020/21 season but he was playing the entire playoffs with a severely injured thumb and ankle. His ankle injury started in February of 2020 yet he continued to play. Even his thumb was bad from earlier on in the season yet he continued to play. If didn't continue to play there is a chance he would be on the ice with Canadians still but we would never know. He had 1 goal and 5 assists in the 2020/21 playoffs so he was still so good for a shutdown d-man yet the injuries ruined him... He hasn't played a game since game 5 of the Stanley Cup final in the 2020/21 season.

Bryan Little was one of the best players on the Jets and Tharshers for almost their entire existence. The forward spent his whole 12 year career with the franchise and was so good. The fans loved him, his teammates loved him and he was a good case to become the captain of the Jets when Ladd left except Wheeler became a superstar for the Jets. Little started to show signs of injury problems in the 2015-16 season and the 2016-17 season but he was still so good. The next two years he played the full 82 games so injuries weren't a problem until 7 games into the 2019-20 season Little took a slapshot to the side of the head from Nikolaj Ehlers. Little was able to skate off under his own will but wasn't able to play for the rest of the 2019-20 season. He had a major concussion and then he had to get surgery to repair his ear drum. What sucked is Little was having a great start to the Season with 5 points in his first 7 games which meant he was on pace for another 50 point season. Sadly it is unlikely that he will play again but he isn't ready to retire as him and the entire hockey world hopes he can play again

Jake Muzzin was a fantastic defense man for the Leafs until he got a severe neck injury four games into the Season. He had 1 assist in those four games. The d-man was one of the most reliable players in the past decade until his injury. He was one of the core defnceman on the leafs and him and Reilly would carry the leafs d-core until they got Giordano and Lyubushkin in the 2021-22 season. He also spent most of the 2022 season injured but was good enough to come back just a few games before the playoffs started. He might come back as Puckpedia and CBS Sports reports that his treatment is going well and he might make a return at the start of the season but it is extreme unlikely because of the Leafs Cap Situation.

Nolan Patrick was drafted 2nd overall in 2017 and is considered one of the worst draft picks of this decade. Patrick's entire career has been full of severe concussions His first two seasons of his career he put up at least 30 points which is good for a young player who can develop more but then he missed the entire 2019-20 season due to a concussion and came back in the 2020-21 season horrible as he had 4 goals and 5 assists in 52 games but he was on one of the worst teams in the league. Then he was traded to Vegas in 2022 where he got injured and missed 3 quarters of the season and he had 3 goals and 4 assists in 25 games. Then the year after he missed the entire season again with an upper body injury. There is still a chance he can return to playing in a depth role or sign a PTO but it is looking unlikely because of the uncertainty surrounding him. He could become a good depth piece like he was in his first two seasons or he can miss the entire season again, who knows. I hope he signs a contract or at least a team gives him a shot sort of like what the Oilers did with Brandon Sutter. He hasn't played since 2021-22 season

Retired?

Ryan Ellis was a fantastic d-man throughout the 2010s. Ellis was one of the many defensive prodigies that Nashville traded for or drafted throughout the 2010's. He was known as one of the better two d-man on the Preds and in the league. In the off-season of 2021 he was traded to the Flyers and started off his Flyers career very good with 5 points in 4 games until he had a very bad lower body injury that he aggravated. He missed the rest of the 2021-22 season with that injury and then missed the entire 2022-23 season. Even though it is unlikely that Ellis will ever play again his injury has been getting better and he hasn't retired because he still has hope that he will play again.

Carey Price was the best goalie throughout the 2010s and it shows. He won 1 Vezina, Lindsay, Hart and Jennings all in a single year while the rest of the time he was consistently top ten in Vezina voting for 6 years out of 10 years and carried the Habs too the playoffs almost every year. Sadly in the 2021-22 season he entered NHLPA assistance program due to alcohol abuse. He returned for the final few games of the 2021-22 season and didn't do that well but he won the Bill Masterton award anyways but in the off-season of 2022 it was learned that he had a very bad knee injury which would make him miss all of the 2022-23 season. On June 21st he announced he was moving back to British Colombia and selling his house in Montreal which pretty much means that he is not making a return to the NHL.

Brent Seabrook was one of the best shutdown d-men of all time. In his prime he won 3 Stanley Cups while averaging around 30 points a season. In the 2019-20 season he had a back injury that sidelined him for the training camp and then he came back to play 32 games for Chicago and then got injured again and hasn't played since November of 2019. He hasn't played since that season because technically he retired but he is waiting for his contract to end that is currently placed with Tampa to officially retire. I think he could have kept playing if he hadn't had 2 major surgeries in the Winter of 2019. The Olympic gold medalist announced that he would not be playing in the NHL again about two years ago.

Jonathan Toews is one of the best centres of all time. He has made it onto NHL's top 100 players of all time list, won a Selke, been a Selke finalist 4 times, been top ten in Selke votes 8 times, won 3 Stanley Cups, 2 Olympic Golds and a Conn Smythe Winner. Sadly, Toews has had many health issues like Covid and Chronic Immune Response Syndrome which made him miss all of the 2020-21 season. He made a return in the 2021-22 season but wasn't himself and had a concussion as well and then in the 2022-23 season he became good old Jonathan Toews again until he faced another injury that is unknown. Currently he is a free agent and has said that he is taking time away from the game to focus on his general health and will most likely not make a return to the game in the 2023-24 season but may return in the 2024-25 season. Toews was the captain for the Blackhawks for 13 years and is an idol for many people in Chicago

U poor guy just posting to yourself

):

nice list and summary tho

Don't worry I know how you feel. It's a very good list too!

Ben Bishop was a very good goalie throughout his career yet he just was so injury prone during his career. He played in Tampa for 5 seasons and was a very reliable player as he started over 60 games for 3 years in a row until in 2016-17 he was replaced and traded to LA for 7 games. After his stint in LA he was traded to Dallas where he played great as he started 53 games and had a 916 save percentage and a 2.49 goals against average and the next year he had a 1.98 goals against average and a 934 save percentage where he should have won the Vezina but came second behind his replacement in Tampa Vaseilevskiy but he should have won it anyways and that is the same case for him in the 2015-16 season as well. But in the 2020 season he was great and probably should have been a Vezina candidate if he got to finish the season but sadly he got injured in the playoffs and had to have knee surgery in Nov of 2020 which ended his playing career. Now he has retired but his contract was moved to Buffalo before he officially retired

Markus Nutivaara was a very good young dman for a few years with Columbus before he was traded to the Panthers where he played 30 games of the 2020-21 season and had 10 assists and was a good player until he got an injury that made him miss 26 games. Then on October 29th of 2021 he suffered an injury which took him out for the rest of the season. Then he signed a contract with Sharks in the 2022 Off Season and then got injured again which made him miss the entire 2022-23 season and was forced to retire

John Klingberg was a star offensive defenceman in the NHL at one point. He came into the NHL on fire placing 5th in calder voting for the Dallas Stars. The next year he played 6th in Norris voting and 2 years later in 2018 He was on the all-star team and had 67 points in 82 games placing 6th in Norris again and won best defenceman in the the IIHF world championships. After those seasons his career started to take a turn for the worst after having hand surgery. In the 2019-20 season he missed 12 games because of injury and his production started to decrease. In the short 2020-21 season his production went up slightly as he was on pace for 55 points in a full season yet his defensive numbers got worse than they already were. In 2021-22 he played 74 games and had 47 points and his 8 year career in Dallas was over as he wasn't re-signed. He signed a 1 year 7 million dollar contract with Anaheim in 2022-23 where his numbers were not good as he was below 0.5 points a game for the first time in his career. He was traded mid-season to Minnesota where his numbers stayed relatively the same. After that season he was looking to bounce back as he signed a one year deal with the Leafs looking to help produce much needed points for the defensive core. He was not good at all. Leafs fan hated him for his poor defensive and offensive play until he told the media what was wrong with him. Ever since he had double hip surgery around 10 years ago it has been bugging him so much this year that he could not play. He is either going to do hip surgery or rehab and will probably not return to the NHL this year. I hope he can bounce back next year but it is looking like his 10 year career is over.

Matt Murray is former back to back Stanley cup winner and highly praised goaltender by the Penguins fans until injuries and possible loss of confidence ended his career. Matt Murray started his career with a bang. He played 13 games in the NHL having a 930 save percentage and a 2.00 goals against average. HE went into the 2015-16 playoffs for the Penguins as their starter at the young age of 22 where he excelled. He had a 923 save percentage and a 2.08 goals against average being a key part to the Penguins first of back to back Stanley cup wins. The next season he was an official rookie as he placed 4th in Calder voting. He basically split the season with Fleury but was better than him by far. He went into the playoffs splitting it with Fleury and he was a beast. He had 937 save percentage and 1.70 goals against average. The next few seasons he continued to produce solid numbers until the 2019-20 season where he had an 899 save percentage. His contract was expiring and he was not re-signed by the Penguins and went into free agency where the Senators took a risk on the goalie offering him a 4 year 25 million dollar contract. The risk did not pay out as he missed half the season with injury and was horrible. He had a 893 save percentage and 3.38 goals against average. The next season he missed most of the season with injury but improved as he had 906 save percentage and 3.05 goals against average. The Sens were looking to dump his contract so they traded him to the Toronto Maple leafs where he missed most of the season with injury again. He was still "Meh" as he and a 903 save percentage and a 3.01 goals against average. It was looking good for Murray as he could have played this season until a hip injury occurred which will make him miss the entire season. He will be a free agent next year and I hope him the best but his career might be over

Update: Murray has played a few games in the AHL this season

Even though he wouldn't be playing right now I think Nathan Horton would have been NHL caliber recently if he didn't have injuries. Nathan Horton was drafted 3rd overall in 2003 and was a 1st line forward throughout most of his career. In his first year he was solid until he had 28 goals the next year and than back to back 62 points seasons and then was on pace for 71 point season if he wasn't injured two years later. He was then traded to Boston where he produced great numbers and won a Stanley Cup being apart of one of the best first lines with Lucic and Krejci during the playoffs, During the short lockout season he was on pace for 30 goals and another consistent season. During his final season with Boston he had a very bad season which was filled with injuries. He returned in perfect shape for the playoffs though as he had his best playoff season ever being a part of Boston's most scary line. After that season he signed a 7 year 37.1 million dollar contract with Columbus. During that season he produced modest numbers until he was injured. He injured his back severely and had to have surgery. To fix his back and have a healthy life with the surgery meant he had to give up his NHL career as his back would never be able to repair itself without the surgery and he wouldn't be able to play anyways. His contract was traded to the Leafs for David Clarkson and he retired. Even though I do not think he would be playing today as that would mean he had to have a 20 year career, I think he would have finished out his contract which was meant to last until 2019-20.

Is Klingberg done done for the year or hopefully recovering?

If he gets hip surgery again that means his season will be over. He most likely needs surgery anyways so it’s looking like he is done for the season

Hopefully he is okay

I hope

This is most likely early but Gabriel Laneskog is the captain of the Colorado Avalanche and was the youngest captain in NHL history before McDavid. His career started off great as he won the Calder trophy and was named captain almost immediately. Over many years he was a consistent 50-60 point scorer until he had his worst season ever in 2016-17 where he only had 33 points in 72 games. Luckily he was back on track the year after as he had his second sixty point season. The next year he blew up as had 75 points in 73 games and was an all-star. The next year he wasn't as good as he missed 16 games in the 2019-20 season but was still on pace for 66 points and 31 goals. The next season he was great again. Even though the season was short due to Covid he still had 52 points in 54 games. He was on pace for 78 points if it was a full season. Next season he stayed on the same track except he missed a 3rd of the season. He had 54 points in 51 games. That meant he was on pace for 86 points. After that fantastic season he was in the playoffs where he performed great. He had 22 points in 20 games winning the Stanley Cup and led the playoffs in +/-. Sadly he battled injuries during that playoffs and had to have knee surgery which sidelined him for all of 2022-23. After that he had to have another knee surgery which kept him out for longer. He had to have another one which is his third in 15 months. This will keep him out this season as well.

There is a chance that he could return for the playoffs this year but it is unlikely that he will ever be in his peak form again. I hope he does well once he returns or if he returns.