NHL PROSPECT CHAZ LUCIUS RETIRES AT 21

Chaz Lucius, once a top NHL prospect, has announced his retirement from hockey at just 21 years old. Selected 18th overall by the Winnipeg Jets in the first round of the 2021 NHL Draft, Lucius was seen as a rising star in American hockey. He spent the last three seasons with the Manitoba Moose, the Jets’ AHL affiliate, where his time on the ice was often interrupted by injury. Now, the reason behind those struggles has come to light.

A Rare Diag­no­sis Ends the Dream

Lucius revealed that he has been diag­nosed with Ehlers-Dan­los Syn­drome (EDS), a rare genet­ic con­di­tion that affects the body’s con­nec­tive tis­sue. This dis­or­der weak­ens joints and organs, often result­ing in fre­quent injuries and pro­longed recov­er­ies. In his state­ment, Lucius said, “I thought I was just unlucky. With this diag­no­sis of EDS, I now real­ize that my body could not han­dle the phys­i­cal nature of play­ing hock­ey.”

After con­sult­ing with med­ical pro­fes­sion­als, Lucius was advised to stop play­ing. The Win­nipeg Jets orga­ni­za­tion ful­ly sup­port­ed his deci­sion, acknowl­edg­ing the risks asso­ci­at­ed with con­tin­u­ing at a pro­fes­sion­al lev­el.

A New Mis­sion Begins

Though dev­as­tat­ed by the ear­ly end to his career, Lucius is already look­ing ahead. “I feel blessed to have expe­ri­enced all that hock­ey gave me,” he said, “even though I am crushed that I can­not con­tin­ue to pur­sue my dream of play­ing in the NHL.”

Lucius now plans to ded­i­cate his ener­gy to rais­ing aware­ness about EDS and advo­cat­ing for oth­ers liv­ing with the con­di­tion. The Jets expressed their full sup­port, wish­ing him suc­cess and strength as he turns to this new chap­ter.