- Noah Philp retired at 27, six weeks after signing with SHL club HV71
- The former Oilers and Hurricanes forward says his motivation is gone
- Read below for HV71’s reaction and why this isn’t his first walk-away
Noah Philp is done playing hockey at 27.
The former Edmonton Oilers and Carolina Hurricanes forward signed with Swedish club HV71 in June and was slotted to center one of their top lines. He never made it to camp. HV71 announced Friday that Philp had terminated his contract and walked away from the game.
Philp laid out his reasoning in a statement the club put out:
“I really want to apologize to HV71 and everyone involved regarding the timing of my decision, but I have decided to stop playing hockey. My motivation for hockey is not fully there, and I’d rather be completely honest than not be fully invested in playing. I think this is best for everyone.”
HV71 is now down a center with a month and a half until the SHL season opens. Philp had signed a one-year deal with an option for a second on June 24.
Sporting director Johan Hult was asked how the club found out, and he said the phone call came out of nowhere earlier this week.
“We had a good dialogue with Noah over the summer about the move to Sweden, so this came as a surprise to us earlier this week,” Hult said in the release. “Noah called me and told me he would not be continuing with hockey.”
Anyone who followed his career has seen a version of this before. Philp put up 37 points in 70 games as an AHL rookie with Bakersfield in 2022-23, then told the Oilers in April he was retiring. Ken Holland qualified him anyway and kept the door open.
That gamble paid off. Philp sat out all of 2023-24, came back the next season with 35 points in 55 AHL games, and made his NHL debut against Nashville in October 2024.
Leon Draisaitl was asked about the undrafted center after that debut, and he did not hide how unlikely the whole thing was. Watch Draisaitl on Philp:
His NHL career came out to 32 games, two goals and three assists. He made Edmonton’s roster out of camp last fall, scored three points in 15 games, and was claimed off waivers by Carolina in December.
Two games with the Hurricanes was all he got. Philp spent the rest of the year with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves and was one of their best players in the postseason, piling up 14 points in 21 games during a run to the Calder Cup Final.
Edmonton has a long history of pulling NHL games out of guys nobody drafted, from Philp to goalie Connor Ungar climbing up from seventh on the depth chart. Philp got 32 of those games out of a career he had already quit once.
