Former Braehead Clan defenceman Scott Aarssen has admitted the end to his career was disappointing after the coronavirus robbed him of a proper farewell to the sport.
The 32-year-old announced his retirement after spending the last two years with Fife Flyers, but the abrupt finish to the campaign meant he didn’t get the closure he would have liked as the final few weeks of 2020/21 were scrapped.
But he’s taken the positives out of how his professional ice hockey concluded and while the plans he and his family had to properly mark the occasion had to be shelved, he’s pleased to come off the ice in good condition.
“I’ll admit, it was a little weird and disappointing to finish in the way I did in the end,” Aarssen said. “But it wasn’t just me in that situation of course. There were a lot of other people in the same boat and we were all going through unique circumstances with the pandemic.
“Unfortunately, there wasn’t much I could do about it and it would have been really nice to have known when my last game would have been instead of finding out a week after that I’d already played it.
“My last appearance was in Belfast against the Giants and my wife had brought the kids over to watch us play and it was lucky, as it turned out, there were all there to see it. We actually planned some things for my last game as I had already decided I would retire, but sadly, we never got to do it. But I was fortunate to end healthy so I can have no complaints about that.”
Aarssen, now working in insurance in London, Ontario in Canada, played for the Clan between 2013 and 2017 under Ryan Finnerty and remained in the Elite League, spending a year with Sheffield Steelers before finishing off in Kirkcaldy for his last two campaigns, playing for Glasgow’s biggest rivals.
He revealed he could have stayed on in Glasgow after holding talks with John Tripp, who followed Finnerty in the Clan hotseat, but no deal was forthcoming meaning Aarssen had to look elsewhere to continue his career at that time.
But Aarssen admits, looking back, he could sense the feeling of change around the club was coming with the key players, who played a key part in the club’s success in finishing second in 2015 and reaching the Champions Hockey League, all leaving.
He added: “I left at the end of the 2017 season, but I’d been talking to the Clan about going back and spoke a few times with John Tripp, as I knew he was coming in to take over from Ryan. However we couldn’t get something done.
“I’m not sure who made the final decision, but nothing had been sorted out and we’d got to a point where I needed a place to play. Out of the blue, I got a call from Sheffield Steelers to go there and I couldn’t wait any longer for Clan to make a decision.
“It came down to what was best for my family and I and certainly wasn’t anything I had pre-planned. At that time, with ‘Finner’ leaving as well as a load of other guys, you could feel things were changing. It wasn’t an easy decision, but one I had to make.
“There’s no regrets at all about making that call and things happened the way it did. I always cherished my times in Glasgow and I was glad to be part of a special team there.”
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