Veteran NHL forward officially announces retirement

   

Nine-year veteran forward Brad Malone has officially hung up his skates (X link). It was previously alluded to in mid-April that the 2023-24 season would be his last with the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors.

Malone was a fourth-round pick of the 2007 NHL Draft by the Colorado Avalanche and eventually debuted with the team during the 2011-12 NHL season. He played in nine contests for the 20th-placed Avalanche squad and tallied two assists in total. Malone would continue to collect small amounts of playing time at the NHL level for the next seven years between Colorado, the Carolina Hurricanes, and the Edmonton Oilers.

His career will come to a close with 14 goals and 32 points over 217 games in the NHL. He will finish with mild experience in the Stanley Cup playoffs with eight total games split between the 2014 Avalanche and the 2022 Oilers.

The University of North Dakota alum has much more experience in the AHL with 552 regular season games and 28 playoff contests under his belt. He’s spent the last four years as captain of the Condors and achieved a career-high 39 points for the team in the 2021-22 AHL season.

Playoff success largely evaded Malone throughout his career but a moderate degree was achieved during the 2020-21 AHL season. The organizations in the Pacific Division held a seven-team divisional playoffs during the Covid-19-pandemic-caused pause on the Calder Cup playoffs which the Condors eventually won over the Henderson Silver Knights.

He will end his career with four goals and nine points in 54 games for Colorado, nine goals and 21 points in 122 games for Carolina, and one goal and two points over 41 games with Edmonton.