The Big Red Dog is hanging up the skates.
Longtime NHL enforcer Kyle Clifford announced he is retiring from the NHL earlier this week.
The forward played 753 career regular-season games as well as 65 postseason contests. The large majority of his career was spent with the Los Angeles Kings, who drafted him in the second round (35th overall) in the 2009 NHL Draft. Clifford won two Stanley Cups with the Kings while playing in Los Angeles for 10 seasons from 2010 until being traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2020.
The winger then hit the open market and landed with the Blues. He signed a two-year, $2 million contract in St. Louis on October 11, 2020 in the middle of an unusual offseason.
Clifford played in 50 games during the 2020-21 NHL season, but it's important to remember that there were just 56 games in the shortened campaign. He also played in all four playoff games as the Blues got swept by the Colorado Avalanche.
The veteran forward scored four goals and added three assists for seven points while providing a physical presence on the fourth line. He equaled his goal total with four fighting majors that season, getting the best of Arizona Coyotes defenseman John Hayden in one of his wins.
He was also used as a punching bag by Ryan Reaves.
You win some, you lose some.
Clifford found himself to be the odd man out entering the 2021-22 season as the 13th forward for the Blues. He played in just two games before getting waived and traded to the Maple Leafs again.
Clifford has played for the Toronto Marlies for the last three seasons, and he'll stay in the Maple Leafs organization in a player development role.