Rick DiPietro is delighted to say that his 15-month-old son, Milo, often greets the day with a mini hockey stick and ball, which he uses to score lots of goals.

“The only regret is that I wish I had him when I was playing,” DiPietro said recently. “He’s obsessed with hockey.”

Although he said he has not filed retirement papers, DiPietro, 34, has not played a competitive game since nearly two and a half years ago, when he told the Charlotte Checkers of the American Hockey League that he was abandoning a comeback attempt after five games.

“It’s probably safe to say no return is coming soon,” he said.

DiPietro, a goaltender who was the No. 1 overall choice in the 2000 entry draft, was so prone to injury during his 10-year, 318-game N.H.L. career, all with the Islanders, that he adopted as his Twitter handle @HDumpty39, as in the Humpty Dumpty who had a great fall.