Former Winnipeg Jets forward Nate Thompson retires

After playing in 844 NHL games veteran Nate Thompson is calling it a career. He announced his decision on the Empty Netters Podcast.

The Anchorage, Alaska product played for 14 seasons in the NHL including the 2020-21 season in Winnipeg with the Jets where he played 44 games. He had two goals and three assists that seasons.

He was drafted by the Bruins in the 6th round back in 2003. After playing four seasons with Seattle of the WHL he joined the Providence Bruins in 2004-05 where he played 11 games in the playoffs for Boston’s AHL club to start his pro career. The next two seasons were spent in the AHL although he was able to make his NHL debut in 2006-07. During the lockout of 2012-13 he returned to his home state to play for the Alaska Aces in the ECHL.

In total he played for nine NHL teams including Boston, New York (I), Tampa Bay, Anaheim, Ottawa, Los Angeles, Montreal, Philadelphia and Winnipeg.

Here in Winnipeg he wore number 11 which is a number very special to people in the Winnipeg Jets/Manitoba Moose organizations because of it’s connection to Rick Rypien. You can read about that here.

For those into numerology, Nate Thompson’s primary jersey number in the NHL was 44. As mentioned above he retires from the NHL having playing 844 regular season games and having played 44 of those games were played with the Jets.