A rare Dustin Byfuglien appearance...and on skates!
It remains one of the strangest career endings in modern day hockey. Dustin Byfuglien decided to hang up his skates at the age of 35 in 2020 despite leaving money on the table to do so. There was no official retirement announcement, little fanfare for the man known for crushing hits and keeping opponents in line, and Byfuglien, seemingly by choice, has stayed as far out of the spotlight as he can ever since. Now, we have a rare sighting of Byfuglien, and he's sporting full hockey gear.
Andrew Ladd, a former teammate of Byfuglien's in both Chicago and Winnipeg, posted a picture to his Instagram story of Byfuglien in full gear with a smile on his face. Even Ladd recognized the rarity of the appearance, captioning the photo with "somehow got this guy on skates again."
It's too bad Big Buff's career ended the way it did. It appears at least one of his ankles got the best of him in the last part of his career, while other injuries mounted as well. He and the Jets mutually agreed to terminate his contract in July of 2020 after Byfuglien underwent surgery for a high ankle sprain. There was ample drama before that decision, with a dispute between the two sides over how severe the injury was and what needed to be done to fix it. Great to see him smiling again!
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Mitch Marner | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Logan Cooley | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| William Nylander | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jack McBain | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Dylan Guenther | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Michael Kesselring | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Fraser Minten | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mikhail Sergachev | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Chris Tanev | - | 1 | 1 | |
| John Tavares | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Simon Benoit | - | - | - | |
| Nick Bjugstad | - | - | - | |
| Michael Carcone | - | - | - | |
| Ian Cole | - | - | - | |
| Lawson Crouse | - | - | - | |
| Connor Dewar | - | - | - | |
| Oliver Ekman-Larsson | - | - | - | |
| Barrett Hayton | - | - | - | |
| Pontus Holmberg | - | - | - | |
| Clayton Keller | - | - | - | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 21 | 17 | 4 | - | 34 | |
Wild | 20 | 13 | 3 | 4 | 30 | |
Devils | 23 | 14 | 7 | 2 | 30 | |
Hurricanes | 20 | 14 | 5 | 1 | 29 | |
Golden Knights | 21 | 13 | 6 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 20 | 13 | 6 | 1 | 27 | |
Flames | 21 | 12 | 6 | 3 | 27 | |
Stars | 19 | 13 | 6 | - | 26 | |
Maple Leafs | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Rangers | 19 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||