CHICAGO – Patrick Maroon announced his retirement in March. He did so to Darren Pang during a warmup interview ahead of the Chicago Blackhawks' game against the St. Louis Blues. Maroon is a St. Louis native, and he won the Stanley Cup there, so it was a fitting ending.
Due to his age and contract situation, there has been speculation about Alec Martinez's future, but he has refused to acknowledge it for a long time.
Finally, he did precisely what Maroon did and told Pang that he'd retire at the end of this year. The only difference was that he waited until his final game to say something.
Each player was in the starting lineup for Chicago, who ended up losing to the Winnipeg Jets 5-4 in a shootout. Each of them got their own special video tribute to go with a standing ovation at different points of the game.
Imagine telling a Chicago sports fan 10 years ago that Patrick Maroon and Alec Martinez would receive incredible love from a Blackhawks crowd at their retirement.
After the game was over, the Jets stayed out to offer handshakes and well wishes to these two players before they hit the showers. Hockey is great for a lot of reasons, but this level of sportsmanship is one of the reasons it's the best.
The two of them announced that tonight would be their final NHL games.
Both Martinez and Maroon won the Stanley Cup three times in their career. Before ending up together in Chicago, their teams had some intense battles over the years in the Western Conference. Now, they were happy to hang them up together.
"I'm so happy that I got to share with Marty tonight," Maroon said on retiring alongside Martinez and being celebrated by the hometown crowd.
Coming in, Maroon's retirement was the only topic on everyone's mind when it came to players leaving the game for good. Martinez changed that narrative right before puck drop.
"If we both have to hang them up, it's pretty cool we could do it together," Martinez said when asked the same question about sharing this night with Maroon.
The mutual respect between these two teammates is off the charts. It is evident by their embrace right before they left the ice following the kind gesture by Winnipeg.
"They're just awesome human beings," said interim head coach Anders Sorensen on Patrick Maroon and Alec Martinez after the game was over. This came after joking about them being in the plans to go during the shootout. You'd have to assume that the shootout went pretty deep if either of them took a shot.
The Blackhawks have two more games but they are both on the road. Maroon and Martinez will not participate in those matches. Closing out their high-end careers at the same time in front of the home crowd was their loud exit.
"The future is bright," Maroon said of the Blackhawks going forward. He played a key role in helping some of the young players grow their games both on and off the ice. Having veteran mentors like that is important which made Maroon an important piece to this team. He excelled in that role.
It's hard to predict Alec Martinez's future in hockey beyond playing. However, it is almost a lock that Maroon will be around the game a lot. Whether that is in hockey ops somewhere or the media side of things, don't worry about never seeing him again.
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