Erik Johnson will forever be one of the most loved athletes in the history of Denver Sports. The Condon spent 14 years repping the burgundy and blue in the Mile High City and made a great impact in Denver, on and off the ice.

Johnson ended up in Colorado via a trade with the Blues before the 2011 deadline. He then played with the Avalanche through the end of the 2022-23 season before bouncing around to a couple spots and ending his 17-year career back in Colorado at the end of last season. He didn’t see much action on the ice down the stretch with the Avs last season, and didn’t play in the final five playoff games for Colorado in 2025.

‘I’M SUPER HAPPY WITH MY DECISION’

The writing was on the wall for the 37-year-old blue-liner, and even though he kept his options open throughout this past offseason, he ended up calling it a career, a decision that he’s happy with. He spoke on Monday for the first time since announcing his decision to retire at a press conference that was filled with emotion.

“I would have — if the right opportunity popped up — I would have loved to kept playing. It didn’t work like that. That’s fine. I stayed ready and skated up until the end to see if anything popped up. But honestly, I’m super happy with my decision. I feel really good about it. I’m happy, and I would have loved it to work out, but [I’m] pretty grateful for for everything that I’ve accomplished and been able to do,” Johnson said at a press conference on Monday.

Johnson reportedly held a couple of PTOs from various teams around the league, a no-risk deal that’s essentially a training camp tryout that’s built for veteran players. If teams like what they see, they can negotiate and work towards a deal for the season. If not, both sides can part ways with no penalty. He jokingly posted videos of him skating on his Instagram story recently to show that he was still putting in work, but when the season drew closer, he still didn’t have what he wanted, so he decided to hang the skates up.

AVS FANS WILL STILL BE ABLE TO SEE THE CONDON

Don’t worry, Avs Faithful. Just because he’s retiring doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to see Johnson on your TV anymore. He shared details of what’s coming next in his career.

“I’m going to try and do a few different things this year and see what I like. I’m going to do color commentary for DU and Air Force games and studio for the Avs, and something else that I can’t say right now that might be popping up here. And then I’m going to have a really good relationship with Danny Briere, so I’m going to help out him and the Flyers this year a little bit too,” Johnson said.

Briere is the general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Johnson also emphasized that he’s going to take some time to enjoy things that he hasn’t before due to the grind of the NHL schedule.

“My family would say, you missed a lot of weddings and birthday parties and stuff like that. And now I’m kind of on the hook to do a lot of that stuff, which I necessarily might not want to do, but I’m going to have to do it,” he joked. “But no, just spending time with a lot of my family and extended family who supported me over the years, and really was on this journey a lot with me.”

He also said that he’s got a trip to Beaver Creek on the horizon next week, something he hasn’t been able to do in the middle of October for decades.

Avalanche fans love Erik Johnson, and it’s clear that Erik Johnson loves Avalanche fans and every person who has some sort of tie to the organization. He’s going to be living in Colorado with his family, and will still be close to the game of hockey, even if he’s not on the ice at Ball Arena rocking his patented No. 6.