Sam Gagner has more than 9 lives
Sam Gagner is top of the list for me.
A lot of the times we'll hear about player retirements from guys who haven't been in the league in years and think "I thought they already retired."
I always get that feeling with Gagner and am surprised to hear he's still kicking it.
Gagner's career is crazy.
He was waived by Philly in the 15-16 season which was his 9th season in the NHL, 9 seasons ago.
At that point, it looked like his career was close to over, seemed like the stage where lots of guys of his ilk head to Switzerland or the KHL.
Then he signed with Columbus and scored 30 points in his first 33 games there and has parlayed that into another 8 seasons in the NHL, almost entirely as a space-filler on terrible/tanking teams.
He's basically been veteran tank-aid longer than he was actually considered a player with value.