As Pat Maroon announces plans to retire from NHL, Blues fans bid farewell to hometown hero

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ST. LOUIS — Pat Maroon wasn’t planning to reveal Saturday afternoon that he’s retiring from the NHL after the season.

Maroon, the St. Louis native and Stanley Cup winner with the St. Louis Blues was in town with the visiting Chicago Blackhawks. The Blackhawks’ TV analyst is the Blues’ former analyst, Darren Pang, and the two have been talking about the decision lately.

“I talked to him a couple of days ago about this being your final game (in St. Louis) and your final season and asked if he was going to make an announcement,” Pang said. “He was hemming and hawing, saying, ‘I don’t know if that’s the right thing.’ Then we talked this morning at the hotel, and I said, ‘This would be the right spot to say it because you’re in St. Louis and it has more meaning here than it will anywhere else.’”

Maroon agreed, and so in a pregame interview before the Blues’ 4-1 win over the Blackhawks, Pang asked: “When you look around here and see so many friends and old teammates, what’s it like for you?”

“It’s tough,” Maroon said. “Sometimes you’ve got to give up everything you know and everything you’ve dreamed of your whole life. I just know it’s time for me and time for my family to go start a new chapter in our lives. To get to have a special moment tonight and be in St. Louis, I won a Stanley Cup here … I’m just going to finish this year as every game is going to be my last game.”

So the 18,096 Blues fans at Enterprise Center on Saturday got to bid farewell to Maroon in several ways — from being in the Blackhawks’ starting lineup to a touching tribute on the giant video screen to being selected as the No. 1 star of the game. And it came with all of his family in attendance: wife Francesca, father Phil, mother Patti, brothers Justin and Phil and uncle Rob Ferraro.

Maroon’s father Phil didn’t know his son was planning to retire until Friday. They were at his house in Chicago before the team made the trip to St. Louis.

“He just came out and said, ‘I think it’s time.’ I said, ‘Time for what?’” his father Phil said. “He said, ‘I think it’s time to hang ’em up.’”

The conversation continued on the phone while the family was driving to St. Louis from Chicago Friday and Maroon was on the other end of the call.

“They had it on speaker and I heard everything,” his father said. “I think my wife and Fran, they wanted to see him keep going.”

His brother Justin didn’t know anything but could sense something Friday because Maroon was giving one-word answers to everything. Justin didn’t know until receiving a text message from a friend during the game that there was a report about the announcement.

“Honestly, I was in shock,” Justin said. “I didn’t believe it and then the (video) came on. I was like, ‘What’s going on?’”

The Blues were quick to react Saturday, putting together a video tribute to Maroon on the arena’s giants screens about eight minutes into the second period. He skated onto the ice and waved to the crowd, as the highlight of his Game 7 double-overtime clinching goal against the Dallas Stars played above.

“Thank God they told me before the period started, so I was ready for it,” Maroon said.

Maroon got emotional as fans rose to their feet.

“Oh yeah, without a doubt,” Justin said, watching from section 119.

Players on both benches, including a few ex-teammates who he won the Stanley Cup with in St. Louis, were tapping their sticks on the boards.

“The Blues didn’t have to do anything,” Maroon said. “I was just having a conversation with Panger, people got wind of it, and it kind of blew up.”

Justin was sitting with his wife Danielle and their boys, Auggie and Archie, who were all decked out in their Blackhawks gear.

“That was special,” Justin said. “St. Louis never fails. Best fans!”

A few sections over in 121, Maroon’s brother Phil and uncle Rob were taking it in.

“You see this stuff as a sports fan and it being your own brother, it’s just a very surreal feeling,” brother Phil said. “I knew the moment was coming up and I was crying before it even started.”

The family was thinking back to all of the memories Maroon had made inside Enterprise Center.

“Heck, I’ve seen him play here when he was in high school with Oakville playing CBC in the championship,” Maroon’s father said.” I wish my dad (Maroon’s grandfather Philip) was still alive. He’s the one who had the season tickets to the Blues when I was a kid, and then he passed them on to me. He used to go to all of Pat’s youth hockey games, and he never got to see him play (in the NHL).”

Maroon caught himself looking around the arena and reminiscing Saturday.

“A lot, especially during the national anthem and especially on the bench, TV timeouts,” he said. “This city means a lot to me, the fan base means a lot, the organization means a lot, and those guys I won with mean a lot to me.”

Of course, one can’t think about Maroon and the Stanley Cup without recalling his goal against the Stars.

“Oh my gosh, watching that goal never gets old,” his brother Phil said. “I don’t think I go six months without watching that goal. It was magical, something we’ll never forget.”


Pat Maroon’s brother, Justin, and family attended Saturday’s Blues-Blackhawks game. (Jeremy Rutherford / The Athletic)

The brothers say Maroon remains wildly popular in St. Louis because of that moment and that playoff run.

“He loves that stuff, especially when it’s kids,” Justin said. “I see it and I just laugh because he’s my little brother. He ties his shoes the same way, right? With my kids, it’s Uncle Pat. They don’t know how to separate Uncle Pat and Pat Maroon.”

Maroon, of course, went on to win two Stanley Cups with the Tampa Bay Lightning and he’s also played with the Minnesota Wild, Boston Bruins and the Blackhawks after leaving the Blues.

In what will be a 14-year NHL career, he played game No. 840 on Saturday. The Blackhawks have 12 regular-season games remaining, but there’s no guarantee how many he’ll be in the lineup.

But this will be it.

“It’s been in the back of my head all year,” Maroon said. “I’ve given everything I have. I want to go out on my own terms. I don’t want to be scratching and crawling for a contract and them telling me I’m out. I’m just going to finish hard. You guys know I play between the whistles as hard as I can, so every time I go over the boards, it’s like my last shift ever. I’m going to continue to do that.”

His brother Phil believes he’ll follow through with retirement.

“His son (Anthony) is a year away from his (NHL) draft class, so I think it’s really good for Pat to step away and focus on paving his son’s way,” he said. “I’ve always prepared for it, but you never want it to end. He played a lot longer than I expected. We cherished every game we got to see him play.”

But Maroon couldn’t let it end without a bang, right?

In the third period, the 36-year-old obliged 25-year-old Blues defenseman Tyler Tucker in a fight and showed that he can still throw them.

“I guess I can,” Maroon said. “I didn’t think that was going to happen, but Tucker is a gamer, he’s a great competitor and he’s a great fighter. He cross-checked me, I cross-checked him and I kind of knew something was going to happen. If it’s my last fight in St. Louis, then it’s pretty cool.”

Interestingly, when the fight ended with Tucker falling on top of Maroon, the same fans who were giving Maroon a standing ovation earlier were cheering Tucker for the job he did on him.

But the crowd would get one more chance.

The Blues announced the three stars of the game at the end of each night and on Saturday the honor of the No. 1 star went to Maroon. He did a postgame interview with Blues TV analyst Jamie Rivers on the Blues’ bench, and few left their seats.

Maroon’s mom, Patti, was pictured on the video screens during that and was crying. He ended the conversation with Rivers by saying, “Thank you, St. Louis, I love you guys.”

“I really appreciate the Blues fans for doing that, knowing that he is a hometown hero, he is going to end his great career, and he is a Stanley Cup champion right here,” Pang said.

Maroon will likely return to live in St. Louis after his career.

“I’m going to be a Blues fan and I’ll be coming to games just like all the other alumni,” he said. “A St. Louis kid, get the opportunity to play in St. Louis to end the year, end on a high note, it’s pretty remarkable. I couldn’t write a better script on how all of this transpired today. I’m happy where I’m at. I’m content, and whatever happens in my next chapter, I’m just going to have to go do it again.”

What will that next chapter be? Could it be on TV?

“Yeah, I think so,” Maroon said.

“Absolutely,” Pang said. “I believe there’s a lot of interest out there with him and I wouldn’t be surprised if you see him on TNT. They are interested in him. I’m really hopeful that happens because he’d be perfect. The setup at TNT is perfect for the Big Rig.”

Whether Maroon becomes an analyst or something else, Justin has no doubt he’ll be successful.

“He still has a lot to offer the game, whether it’s playing or coaching or whatever it may be,” his brother said. “He was born to do this. I know he’ll be in the game for a long time.”

A game Maroon is leaving as a player with no regrets.

“I’ve given it everything,” he said. “I’m happy I got to win in my hometown and I go on and win two more. I’ve achieved everything I ever thought and probably overachieved sometimes. I was against all odds and I beat the odds. I was always a person who was self-motivated. I wanted to do it on my own because everyone doubted me. I wanted to put that doubt in everyone else’s face.”

“I’m proud of his accomplishments because he did it all on his own,” his father Phil said. “I didn’t have the money to send him to all these camps. He’s done it for the love of the game. I’m just happy that he’s going to be happy — that’s all that matters.”

(Top photo: Alexis R. Knight / NHLI via Getty Images)

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