Brad Emons

hometownlife.com

After playing 12 professional seasons, including nine in the National Hockey League, Dave Moss quietly turned in his retirement papers to the NHL last month.

"I wasn't good enough to hold a press conference," joked the 34-year-old Moss, who played 501 NHL games that included six seasons with the Calgary Flames and his final three with the Arizona Coyotes.

The Livonia native and Detroit Catholic Central High grad now is transitioning into a new life outside of hockey as he embarks on a sale training position with Dell Technologies.

Now residing in South Lyon with his wife Erinn, a former Survivor: Tocantins contestant, along with two infant sons Hank, 15 months, and Owen, 3 weeks-old, Moss leaves the game feeling content.

When word trickled out that Moss was calling it quits, he received a ton of emails and calls from his friends and past coaches.

Moving forward

"All those people and I said, 'God, that's what I'm going to miss,'" said Moss, who scored a total of 78 goals and while adding 100 assists during his NHL career. "The relationships that you build from the sport of hockey you're not going to have anymore going forward. And that's the thing that I'm going to miss."

The 6-foot-2, 210-pound forward suffered his fair share of injuries during his nine-year NHL career. He missed time due shoulder, head, leg and ankle issues.

"It's noticeable," Moss said. "You don't think about it too much until you get older. I'll be 35 in a month. I think now I notice it more. When I'm playing with my kids I'll be rolling around the floor, I'll get up and my knees will lock up and my ankle that I had surgery on . . . it takes me awhile to get going."

After graduating from CC, Moss played junior for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders of the USHL before signing with the University of Michigan where he racked up 93 points, including 36 goals in four seasons (2001-05).

In the 2001 NHL Entry Draft, Moss went in the seventh round (222nd overall) by the Flames before being assigned to play for the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights of the American Hockey League where he led all rookies during the 2005-06 season with 21 goals and 27 assists.

NHL arrival

On Dec. 19, 2006, the Flames called up Moss from Omaha to make his NHL debut in L.A.

And until the day he dies, Moss will cherish his first NHL game more than any other. It still remains as his signature moment when he made his debut in a 5-3 victory against the host Kings.

"In the NHL I never made it far in the playoffs, but I would say the one thing that sticks out in my mind was the first game that I played," Moss said. "It was always a dream of mine to play in the NHL. When I got called up I scored in my first game. I just remember thinking after the game, 'This is awesome.' I thought maybe that was the only game I'd ever play, who knows? But I'll always be able to have this puck and show my kids one day and say, 'Hey, I actually played a game in the NHL.' Now that I look back, it's like, 'Wow.' At the time it was super fast. I just feel so humbled and lucky to have a career that was over 500 games."

In 2008-09, Moss enjoyed his most productive offensive season with 20 goals and 19 assists as the Flames made the playoffs for the third straight year. But during his time in Calgary, the Flames never got past the first round.

After becoming a free agent and signing with Phoenix in 2012-13, Moss went on to play three more seasons with the Coyotes.

Playing for USA

During his stint in Phoenix, Moss also represented Team USA in the World Hockey Championships in both 2010 and 2013 where he had five goals and five assists in 16 total games. In the 2013 Worlds, Moss won a bronze medal with the U.S. and played the against the host Germans at Veltins-Arena, which at the time set a new world attendance record of 77,803.

Not resigned after the 2014-15 season, Moss looked for a two-way NHL contract entering 2015-16 trying to latch on with another NHL club seeking a two-way deal with Nashville and getting a tryout with the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL.

But a deal never was reached and Moss landed in Europe last November with EHC Biel of Swiss National League A.

"My wife and my son came with me, it was awesome," Moss said. "We had a great time. It was a good experience. The country, first of all, is beautiful. And the people treated us so well. We got to see Europe, travel around, Germany, Italy and traveled all over Switzerland."

And the level hockey proved to satisfy Moss as well.

European style

"It's the number one league in Switzerland," he said. "I'd say probably go NHL, KHL and then Swiss League. The hockey is really good and you get really good players in that league. It's different. You play in an Olympic ice and there's really not much physicality to it, but it was a good experience for me. In terms of lifestyle, I don't think it gets any better. There was very little pressure, a limited schedule they play, 50 games. It's not as demanding and Switzerland is a small country. There was literally not one overnight trip, bus the day of the game, an hour or two, and then come home. For a family life it was great."

Once the Swiss season ended in April, Moss returned home and thought he might return to Europe for yet another season.

"It was so good that we considered going back there," said Moss, who graduated from U-M with a degree in Sports Management. "I told the team and I said, 'Hey, if you can resign me, I'll come back in a heartbeat.' We talked for awhile and they ended up deciding to go with another import with a young Finnish kid. You can only have four imports on a team, so the jobs are tough. After that I kind of gave myself until June to find another job in Switzerland, but the way things kind of work over there they wait a long time to sign guys. My wife was pregnant with my second kid, so I needed to know fairly soon. But that time I made the decision, 'You know what? I don't want to move my wife and family with two young kids now, so I just said, 'Hey, it's time.'"

Time had come

The decision was final and there was no looking back. It was time for Moss to retire.

"I think it's just the people, the relationships," Moss said. "There's a lot of things when you retire that you don't miss. When I said I was retiring, my wife said, 'How do you feel about this?' And I said, 'It's not that bad.'

"I'm not going to miss my body getting beat up every single day, all those things, but you miss going to the rink every day from what I thought was the greatest job ever and I was lucky enough to do it as long as I did."

Moss plans to continue to dip is toe in the hockey waters as a volunteer assistant coach at his alma mater Catholic Central serving under his former University of Michigan teammate Brandon Kaleniecki.

"I can still skate," Moss said. "I can push pucks around the ice at CC."

Meanwhile, Moss has numerous hockey memories throughout his career.

He played for his state championship high school hockey team and two NCAA Frozen Fours, He also played in the the famous Cold War outdoor game between Michigan and MSU (before what was then a world-record crowd of 74,544), along with three outdoor NHL classics and three NHL playoff series.

Moss also centered a top line in Phoenix that included Jerome Iginla and Alex Tanguay.

"My career, I was very fortunate," Moss said, "but it was time to do something else."

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