Two months ago Teemu Selanne was home in Finland, and his aching left knee told him he could no longer defy the clock.
He was coming off surgery to clean out and repair the knee. His skates were well tucked away and looked like they'd be staying there.
"The whole month of July I was thinking it doesn't look very good," Selanne said. "I couldn't do much after two or three weeks. It's amazing how fast you lose the muscles around your knee. There were a lot of days where I felt, 'I don't know if this is going to work anymore."
Selanne suffered a setback in his recovery as recently as last month, but he strengthened the area enough to become pain-free and announced Thursday that at age 41, he will return for a 19th NHL season.
The announcement comes two days before the Anaheim Ducks open training camp and is a big relief to the team, which won't have to worry about replacing a player who was eighth in the League in scoring last season.
"We are ecstatic to have Teemu back," Ducks owners Henry and Susan Samueli said in a press release issued by the team. "His devotion to our organization, his teammates, and the fans is unparalleled. He is a true Duck at heart and we can't wait to see him flying down the ice again this season."
Selanne told reporters in a conference call that his one-year, $4 million contract wasn't put in place until Wednesday because he tabbed that as the deadline to gauge progress on his knee.
"I was very happy in the last month or so that I was skating with no pain, and that's a good sign," he said. "I'm very optimistic that it (knee) is going to last."
Even if Selanne was undecided at the start of camp, the Ducks would have given him a professional tryout contract to keep him in camp and allow him time to decide, as they have done in the past with him and Scott Niedermayer.
Since the 2007 Stanley Cup season, Selanne deliberately has taken his status year-to-year and playfully danced around the retirement question.
But Selanne all but conceded this will be the last go-round.
"It's got to stop somewhere," he said. "I look at this as my last year, and hopefully it's going to be a good one."
Selanne will be hard-pressed to match last season's 31 goals and 49 assists, which tied Henrik Zetterberg of Detroit with 80 points. But that challenge is why Selanne keeps going.
