Here is the complete transcript, courtesy of the Flyers, on Danny Briere's retirement news conference at Skate Zone.DANNY BRIERE PRESS CONFERENCEI just want to say thanks to all of you for attending, for showing up this morning. It means a lot. Today as you’re well aware, I’m announcing my retirement from playing in the NHL. It’s been a great ride and I’ve been very, very fortunate all those years to play for so long and to play for so many wonderful organizations. But unfortunately it’s the end of the road for my playing days. One of the reasons why I decided to do it here in Philadelphia is because I had some of my best memories here. The bulk of my career was played here and in Buffalo. It’s home to me and my family, and the boys are going to school here.There’s a few thank you’s that are in order and I’d like to spend just a few minutes naming a few. I’d like to start off with my parents for all the money and the sacrifices they’ve done to give me the chance to play hockey growing up. My sister, who was stuck chasing me in the rinks and spending a lot of time in the rinks… it wasn’t always easy for her, so a big thank you to her and her family for all those years. All my friends, I’ve made a lot of friends growing up and playing hockey, all over the world, even during the lockout. I still have some friends that are in Berlin, some friends that are in Switzerland. They know who they are, the people who I constantly text with back and forth, that were there in the good times and the bad times and were always there for me supporting me throughout my career, a huge thank you to them. I want to say thank you to the five organizations that I’ve had a chance to play with in the NH, and they’re all very special in their own way. There’s something a little special with all of them. The Coyotes, the Buffalo Sabres, the Colorado Avalanche, Montreal Canadiens, and obviously the Philadelphia Flyers here. It was probably the biggest decision of my career when I decided to join the Flyers, the biggest and the toughest as well, but one that I certainly don’t regret. I want to thank Mr. Snider, Paul Holmgren, and Peter Luukko for trusting in me when I joined the Flyers. All the coaches, staff, and teammates that I’ve had along the way, I’ve had great relationships, friendships and memories with a lot of them, so I thank all of them for being there and supporting me and my teammates and my teams throughout all these years. The fans throughout the hockey world, the people that support us, I’m a big hockey fan and I love the game, I still do even when I was a player, I still consider myself a fan, I loved watching games in between, especially playoff hockey. It’s the best time of the year, but because of those fans, it gives us the chance to be athletes and earn a living playing the game that we love so much.I want to thank the ladies in my life… there’s not a lot, I’m stuck with three boys at home. But there’s a few ladies around. First of all my fiancée Misha, who’s been a rock for me the last four years; my ex-wife Sylvie, who was a big part of my career, especially the first half; and also Keirsten, who’s been helping me with the kids the last few seasons. Without her, I wouldn’t have been able to go out and play – without any of those three ladies especially, I wouldn’t have been able to keep my career going the past couple years. And the last three that have been my inspiration all those years, the reason I kept going, I kept fighting, kept pushing, kept staying on the ice for more, going to the gym, to be able to keep playing – my three boys that are there in the back [Caelan, Carson, Cameron]. Thank you boys for all of your patience and being there without me the last couple years. Like I said earlier, I’m a big fan of the game, and in the future I hope to stay involved somehow in the hockey world.Where does this take you now? Have you thought about the future?There’s many things that I’d like to do moving forward. First and foremost the priority is going to be the boys and the family. All those years when we play, we’re on the road a lot, and especially the last two years being away from the kids, from the family, has been tough at times, so a big part of my reason for putting a stop now is having the chance to spend more time with them. The boys are all in high school, they don’t have lot of time left at home, and I don’t want to miss any more time with them. I want to be there to watch them grow up, watch them play their sports, hockey and lacrosse or whatever else they decide to join. After that, in the next few days, weeks, I’m hoping to sit down with Homer and maybe go over different options about what might I possibly be doing around here and helping out with the Flyers hopefully.When you look back on 17 years, is there one moment where you say this is something that was tops for me?Like I said earlier, every organization, there’s a spark that’s been special. But if I had to pick one, one moment is the two-month stretch in 2010, our playoff push to the Stanley Cup Final. It was tough losing two wins away from achieving the ultimate dream, but that two month stretch – making the playoffs on a shootout the last day of the season against possibly the best shootout goalie in the league and taking that all the way to two wins away from the Stanley Cup was the best two months of my career.You’re not doing a press conference like this in any other city. Why Philly?It was a huge decision when I decided to join. I’ve always felt like it was the right decision. I felt at home all this time here. The relationship with the organization, the staff, my teammates, the fans here, has been amazing. Like I said, I come back here in my offseasons, they’ve been spent here the last couple years. It’s home to our family. Those are all reasons why it’s here in Philadelphia.Why were you so good in the playoffs?I don’t know. I wish I had a clear-cut answer. I don’t think anybody can explain why it happens that way, why certain players come out that way and why other players it doesn’t work so well. I’ve been fortunate to be at the right place at the right time. Throughout my career I’ve been asked that question a lot, and I wish I had a more clear-cut, defined answer. I can’t exactly put my finger on it. But it was also something that I’m very proud of and I really enjoy doing. I know when the game was on the line, I wanted to be the guy who was going to make the play. I wanted to have the puck, I wanted to find a way to make it happen. That became tougher… you know your role as you get older, and you’re not the go-to guy anymore on the team, but you still feel like you can do it in that one special moment. It became tough when you’re sitting on the bench and you’re watching other guys. I guess it’s the competitive side. I just wanted to be the guy making the plays. I learned a lot of that from Chris Drury, when I showed up in Buffalo, just watching him handle himself. He was known earlier in his career from being a guy who could make it happen when it was demanded, almost. I learned a lot from him just on how he prepared and how he wanted to be the guy making the difference every chance. That’s kind of the attitude I adopted when we were in the shootout, when we were at the end of the game and we needed a goal, when we were in overtime, or a playoff game, I was constantly telling myself on the bench, I’m going to be the guy making the difference. And for whatever reason, when you believe it, a lot of the time, it happens.Was there any time you thought about coming back for one more season?Yes, there’s many times when I was going back and forth. Like I said, I still love the game, and I wish I was still playing. It wasn’t just about myself and about playing. There was more involved in my decision. So yes, I was going back and forth many, many times. But there’s no doubt in my mind. I’m very comfortable with the decision. That’s part of the reason too. I didn’t want to come out and make an early decision, and regret it, and come back and change my mind. I wanted to make sure I was OK with it moving forward. At this point, I feel like it’s time and I’m making the right decision.Are you proud of being viewed as a clutch player?Yes I’m proud of it. There’s no doubt about it. Like I said earlier, I wish I had a more clear-cut answer on why it happened that way, but yes, I’m very proud of it. That and the other thing looking back over my career that I’m really proud of…we all hear the saying that it’s one thing to get to the NHL, it’s another thing to stay. One thing that I’m very proud of is that I tasted the NHL early on in my career, and it was taken away from me. It took me three years of ups and downs before I was able to get back up for good. There was a lot of tough times, tough moments… clearing waivers, when nobody picked me up. That’s another thing that I’m very proud, that I fought and never quit, and kept working hard to achieve my dream.Paul Holmgren – on the day the Flyers signed BriereWe were high-fiving pretty much that day once we got word Danny was heading our way. We were extremely excited. Thinking back, [Scott] Gomez was an option, [Chris] Drury was an option, and the guy we spent most of our time on was Danny. To get him that day – I remember when he came in a few days later, he sat in my office and he thanked me, and I think I said no, thank you for coming. Remember, the year before was a tough year for the Flyers. I think signing Danny that day back in 2007 kind of turned things around for us almost immediately heading into that next season. It was a huge day.On proving people wrong who he couldn’t play in the NHLThere’s many of them that I remember when I was playing junior in Drummondville. There were a few articles, and I don’t want to go back on who said it, but NHL executives or experts or ex-players who made some comments and had seen me play. Most of the people all said that I was too small, too fragile to play in the NHL. I had a lot of those cut-out in my room. I had a little box that I kept by my bed, that anytime things would get tough a little bit, that I would open and read. That was kind of my motivation at the time to prove them wrong.Do you feel you opened the door for other smaller players of future generations?I hope so. I don’t think I was the only one. There were a lot of guys before me that had done the same thing. It’s pretty amazing when you hear comments like that, that I helped smaller guys. I’m very proud of that. I also think when I signed with the Flyers, it was starting to turn with the new rules, and we started seeing smaller, faster players being more effective because of the new rules giving those types of players a little more room on the ice to maneuver.On what other players said about retirement (partial)We’ll see. For everybody it’s a little different, and in a lot of cases guys are kind of pushed out. I don’t feel like I’m getting pushed out. I feel like it’s my decision. It’s time to go. I’ve had an amazing journey and I’m very comfortable with where I am at this point. It’s just time for me to let someone take my spot.On when thoughts of retirement startedProbably when I started thinking about it more and more during the season in Colorado. It’s a dangerous slope also – once you start opening the door to it, now you’re questioning yourself, and it becomes tougher and tougher to keep going. But even when I started thinking about it, I’ve had a lot of doubts both ways for the past few months on is it the right time, is it not... bouncing back and forth on what to do. But the last couple weeks I’ve been very comfortable with the fact that it’s time to stop.You came here after two straight years in the conference finals and the Flyers had just had their worst season. How tough of a decision was that?It wasn’t, really. When I signed with the Flyers, I really thought this was the best opportunity to win. I know a lot of people brought up they were last in the NHL the year before. And I want to go back even a little before that, up until about a week to ten days before free agency, I was convinced I was going to be a Buffalo Sabre for the rest of my career. I was convinced of that when people were asking me. That’s the truth. I really believed that something was going to happen and I was going to be a Sabre. In the last week when I started realizing it wasn’t happening and I had to open up my mind to it a little bit, I started looking at teams, and I remember I was hoping the Flyers would be one of the teams. I didn’t know if they were interested, but I was hoping they’d come up with an offer. People sometimes don’t realize what Homer was building. You look at the year before, the trade for Upshall and Coburn. The week before, they got the rights to Hartnell and Timonen. So that’s four new players. Marty Biron was at the trade deadline - that’s five. On that same day there’s a trade for Lupul and Jason Smith. We’re now at seven new guys. I had a chance to play against Jeff Carter and Mike Richards, and you knew it was just a matter of time for them to take over. So now you’re at nine top-end players. With me joining, that’s 10. So that’s half the team. That’s not even counting Derian Hatcher, Simon Gagne, Mike Knuble… I could keep going down the list. So there was no doubt in my mind that the team was really turning around and it was my best chance to win.Did you talk with Marty Biron?We weren’t allowed to talk about that. Marty and I are good friends, we had a lot of discussions… he told me a little bit about the city, told me he loved playing here, and that it was a great community, but that’s about as far as we went. I tried to stay away from getting too much… I had a lot of friends all over different teams, so you start talking to someone, you don’t want to disappoint them if you pick another team. So it was a tough situation too. I didn’t want to get in too deep with anyone.For reaction to this and more FLyers, check out CSNPhilly.com:_________________________