Tampa Bay Lightning Alum Cedrick Desjardins announces his retirement from hockey
Former Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Cedrick Desjardins has made the difficult decision to announce his retirement from the sport of professional ice hockey.
The Tampa Bay Lightning has seen a lot of players come and go since their inception back in 1992. Some of these players have spent almost their entire career wearing Lightning Blue, while others were only a member of the Bolts Nation for a short period of time.
Despite the length of time one spends here in the Lightning community, there will always be a spot for these players in the hearts of the team and its fans alike. There is one particular area of play which has seen a lot of turnover in the last 25 years…goaltending.
The Lightning has struggled between the pipes for many seasons, desperately searching for the netminder who could truly backstop the Bolts to victory. Goaltenders like Nikolai Khabibulin, Dwayne Roloson, Ben Bishop, and much more have brought much success to the Lightning organization.
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Unfortunately, one particular former Tampa Bay Lightning netminder has made one of the toughest decisions any hockey player can make. At a Press Conference for Boot Camp, former Lightning goaltender Cedrick Desjardins officially announced his retirement from the sport of professional ice hockey.
Desjardins has played for many teams over the course of his 14 season career, but the only team in the National Hockey League he ever laced his skates up for was the Tampa Bay Lightning. In his time here in the Bolts Nation, he played in a total of six games.
In this amount of time, Desjardins posted a 2-4-0 record with a Goals Against Average of 2.41 and a Save Percentage of .919. While these numbers may not be something to write home about, they are not truly an accurate representation of his skills between the pipes.
In the 2010-11 season, the now-31-year-old netminder played with the Lightning’s then-American Hockey League affiliate, the Norfolk Admirals. During the 24 games he played with the Admirals, he was about to register a 15-6-1 record with a Goals Against Average of 2.59 and a Save Percentage of .905.
Fast forward a little to the 2013-14 season where Desjardins would play alongside the Lightning’s current American Hockey League affiliates, the Syracuse Crunch. Ceddy would play a total of 14 games with the Crunch, where he would maintain an 8-5-1 record with a Goals Against Average of 2.12 and a Save Percentage of .918.
Unfortunately, the 2013-14 season would be the last time fans could call Cedrick Desjardins an official member of the Bolts Nation. After posting a 9-18-4 season with the Syracuse Crunch, the newly Free Agent Desjardins would find himself with a new home alongside the Hartford Wolfpack, the AHL affiliate of the New York Rangers.
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No one ever wants to walk away from the sport they hold so dear to their hearts, but as the old saying goes, “all good things must come to an end eventually.” Of course, this is not the last time we’ll have an opportunity to see Desjardins out on the ice. Desjardins’ retirement is simply the closing of one book and the opening of another.
Now that he’s not tied down to a grueling 3-4 game-a-week schedule with a professional team, he has a lot more time to dedicate to Boot Camp. Boot Camp is about to put on a tournament where many players around the National Hockey League come together to play on the same ice. If you’d like more information on the tournament, you can head on over to their official site.
(Unless you speak French, you will want to make sure your browser translates from French to English.)
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We here at Bolts By The Bay would like to extend our best wishes to Cedrick Desjardins as he closes the book on one chapter of his life and begins a whole new journey. No matter where life leads you, there will always be a place for you here in the Bolts Nation.