Simon Gagne didn't let concussions define his career

Simon Gagne had a feeling he better take the puck with him.

Last December he was in Arizona with the Boston Bruins and he scored a goal in what was his last NHL game. He knew his father, Pierre, was sick with cancer.

The longtime Flyer took a leave of absence with the Bruins and brought the puck to his father, a member of the first ever training camp for the Flyers, a joint effort with the Quebec Aces.

“I knew at that time my dad that there was nothing that we could do for him and it was just a question of time,” Gagne said, “so all that at that time even if I did decide in September to announce that I was going to retire officially, I knew at that time it was the right timing.”

Last season Gagne enjoyed every roadtrip, every trip to the rink, every morning with his teammates in the locker room knowing it was probably going to be his last season.

Concussions slowed down a career for the Flyers’ 22nd-overall pick in the 1998 draft and his father’s death seemed like a natural way to close it out. The Flyers will honor his career and celebrate his retirement Tuesday when one of his former teams, the Los Angeles Kings, visits town.

“(Concussions) interrupted his career somewhat, for sure,” general manager Ron Hextall, who was an assistant with L.A. when they won the Stanley Cup with Gagne in 2012, said when Gagne announced his retirement in September. “If he wouldn't have had that and he maintained that level he achieved for awhile, he'd probably be looked at as even a better player and he was a hell of a player.”

Gagne, a two-time All-Star, had 291 goals and 601 points in 822 career games. He played parts of 11 seasons with the Flyers and is ninth on the Flyers’ all-time goal list and 10th in both points and games played.

When he was healthy, he was one of the Flyers greats.

“I had eight concussions,” Gagne said. “That’s a lot and the big one I had in 2007 we’re not sure if it was one or three, but it ended up that we thought it may have ben one that never healed and came back too early the other time so that’s eight of them. In the NHL six, but the other two in junior.”

When Gagne watches the game now he cringes at some of the hits he sees, especially to players’ heads. He sees players remain on the field, lying there for a moment before getting up and wonders if they feel what he felt.

Gagne, 35, is not part of the ongoing class action lawsuit against the NHL concealed the risks of concussions to glorify violence in the sport.

“I’m always concerned and I try to look at him if he’s doing the right thing,” Gagne said. “The player is always going to have the last decision even if the doctors help him to make the right decision, but it’s a tough thing if you never had one, you almost need to have more than one to three, to realize what’s going on, or to know if it’s a concussion or not.

“I think we are definitely improving on that, there’s still a lot of room for improvement on that and I think if it takes the lawsuit to open more things, but I think the NHL doing a lot of good things with the NHLPA right now I think it’s a lot better than it was 10-15, 20, 30 years ago.”

Gagne doesn’t let his career be defined by his head trauma. He had great memories from his rookie season playing with Eric Lindros, John LeClair and Mark Recchi to going to the 2010 Stanley Cup finals with the Flyers against the Chicago Blackhawks.

He kept an eye on things earlier this season when the Flyers had similar ceremonies for the careers and retirements of Danny Briere and Kimmo Timonen.

“It’s going to be fun to go back to where everything started, where my son was born, and we’re really excited,” said Gagne, who has three children now. “We’re going to stick around more than just one night. We’re going to stay there for the week and just have some really good memories that happened there when I was in Philly for more than 10 years.”

White out 2-4 weeks

Ryan White left midway through the third period of the Flyers’ 3-2 overtime win Saturday night after getting hit by Carolina’s John-Michael Liles. The team announced Sunday he would miss the next two to four weeks with what they call an “upper-body injury.”

His injury will likely keep Taylor Leier around. Leier made his NHL debut Saturday after the Flyers recalled him and defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere. They got $5.25 million in salary cap space by putting blueliner Mark Streit on long-term injured reserve. He will have surgery to repair a displaced pubic plate. R.J. Umberger is also on injured reserve with a “lower-body injury.”

Dave Isaac; (856) 486-2479; disaac@gannettnj.com .