Apparently J.R. hasn’t quite made up his mind about this whole retirement gig.
Well, it’s not particularly surprising! Retirement from hockey must be a slightly frightening concept for such a figure like Roenick. It’s one thing to retire after having had a short career of nothingness, but when your entire life has been nothing but the sport, it’s got to be rough leaving it.
This, to me, suggests that J.R. may end up being another one of those guys who ends up in a broadcasting career, or some other such position. While I don’t know if he’d be suited to management on a team, he has the ability to voice an opinion, and that’s often cherished come hockey hour.
If he doesn’t retire from the game itself soon enough, he won’t have much of a career left. While he may stick around for another year, unless he can rebound then don’t expect to see him dilly-dally around too much in getting out of the playing side of things. But he’ll likely keep his eye on some other position, which, honestly, will be kind of nice. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of him on CBC or TSN (which, I believe, he has done a couple of stints with!). The key is that he has to be able to contribute intelligently on a regular basis… and if anyone can be more than just a pretty face it’s Roenick!
1 Comment
July 17, 2007 at 6:47 pm
He’s a little like Don Cherry — full of opinions and full of himself.
I’m not sure whether TSN would hire him back. Roenick was constantly drawing attention to himself. For example, at the end of every segment he’d be waving his arms in the air or something — “Notice me! Don’t look at that other guy!”
It got to a point where the other panelists were openly mocking him for it … but Roenick kept it up anyway. I don’t know whether it was all in good fun, or if the other guys genuinely loathed working alongside him.