DETROIT, Oct. 10 -- Rugged right wing Joe Kocur, who won three Stanley Cups and amassed 2,519 penalty minutes during a 15-year career, announced his retirement Tuesday and was named video coordinator for the Detroit Red Wings.
Kocur, 35, had not played since the 1998-99 season, when he recorded two goals, five assists and 87 penalty minutes in 39 games for the Red Wings.
He spent 9 1/2 seasons -- including his final three -- with Detroit, winning Stanley Cup championships in 1997 and 1998.
Kocur recorded his first career playoff goal in Game One of the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals, then set up Kirk Maltby's game-winner in Game Two. His other title came in 1994 with the New York Rangers.
The 6-foot, 222-pounder was Detroit's fifth-round pick in the 1983 draft and broke into the NHL in February 1985. On November 2, 1985, he set a team record with 42 penalty minutes against St. Louis. He established another Red Wings' record with 377 penalty minutes in 1985-86, his first of six straight seasons with at least 213 penalty minutes.
Kocur's best season offensively was 1989-90, when he recorded 16 goals and 20 assists in 71 games while spending 268 minutes in the penalty box.
A hernia sidelined him for the final six games of the 1998-99 season and all of 1999-2000. Kocur ranks 15th on the NHL's all-time penalty minutes list and has 80 goals and 82 assists in 820 NHL games.NEWLN:
