Selected 28th overall, with the pick the Calgary Flames received for Jarome Iginla, Morgan Klimchuk will join the group of players that only ever played a single NHL game. The 27-year-old has joined the coaching staff of the Victoria Royals of the WHL, signaling a definite end to his professional career.
Klimchuk last played during the 2019-20 season with the Belleville Senators, scoring 12 goals and 26 points in 49 games. In 2021-22 he coached U15 prep players at Edge School, a private athletic academy outside of Calgary. Through 274 AHL games, he scored 62 goals and 133 points.
While he has quite a bit of work ahead of him, these kinds of early retirement stories can lead to extremely young head coaches at the professional level. Klimchuk was picked in the same round as Nathan MacKinnon and Aleksander Barkov, for instance, players who are still right in their prime on the ice.