Veteran defenseman Brad Hunt announced on social media yesterday that he has retired from professional hockey.
Hunt’s decision brings to a close a professional hockey career that spans 14 years, 422 AHL games, and 288 NHL games.
An undersized 5’9″, 176-pound offensive defenseman, Hunt went undrafted as a near point-per-game BCHL player, and elected to continue his hockey journey by playing in the NCAA for Bemidji State University.
His first season of college hockey was 2008-09, and he was an instant success in college.
As a freshman, Hunt scored nine goals and 32 points in 37 games, and became a conference champion, rookie of the year, and first team all-star.
Hunt would go on to play a full four-year career at Bemidji, where he scored 112 points in 150 total games. Hunt’s production and ability to quarterback a power play generated interest from professional teams, but his lack of prototypical size meant he was limited to an AHL contract. After his senior season ended, Hunt turned pro on an ATO with the Chicago Wolves, later signing a full AHL deal.
As a rookie in 2012-13 with the Wolves, Hunt made an instant impact, just as he had done in college. He scored 33 points in 65 games, leading all Chicago defensemen in scoring and earning AHL all-star honors. He showed he could quickly translate his college hockey scoring to the professional level.
Hunt’s strong debut in the AHL earned him a two-year entry-level contract from the Edmonton Oilers in July 2013. It was in his first two years as an Oiler that Hunt established himself not only as a star offensive defenseman in the AHL, but also a capable NHL call-up option.
In his two seasons with the Oklahoma City Barons, Hunt scored 101 points in 128 games, and 11 points in 13 playoff contests. He also earned his first NHL call-up in 2013-14 and ended up getting into 11 games during the 2014-15 season, as the Oilers plunged to the bottom of the NHL standings in an effort that landed them Connor McDavid.
Hunt would end up playing for the Oilers until he hit free agency in the summer of 2016. There, he signed a one-year deal with the St. Louis Blues that contained a $400K AHL salary, a hefty number commensurate with his status as one of the AHL’s top offensive blueliners. Hunt scored 29 points in the AHL that year, but played in just 23 games at that level as he split the year between St. Louis and the Nashville Predators, who claimed him off of waivers.
That 23-game stint with the Chicago Wolves in 2016-17 proved to be Hunt’s last stretch of AHL action for a half-decade. From 2017-18 to 2022-23, Hunt was a full-time NHL player, serving as a No. 7 defenseman for the Vegas Golden Knights, Minnesota Wild, Vancouver Canucks, and Colorado Avalanche. It was in that span of time that Hunt also earned one-way contracts for the first time in his career.
In 2022-23, at the age of 34, Hunt returned to the AHL, playing in 24 games for the Colorado Eagles compared to 47 in the NHL for the Avalanche. But by 2023-24, Hunt had returned to being a full-time AHLer, and by that point, he had already played in his final NHL game. His effectiveness as an AHL scorer remained, though, and he managed 16 goals and 49 points in 70 games, earning a spot on the league’s first all-star team.
In 2024-25, Hunt endured the worst AHL season of his career, posting just 19 points in 41 games. That led to him signing overseas for the first time in his career last summer, inking a deal with Vaasan Sport in Finland. During the 2025-26 season, Hunt scored 25 points in 53 games as a Liiga rookie.
Hunt’s professional career is an interesting one, because he was a legitimate star performer at the AHL level who never quite got an extended run in the league due to his ability to serve as a capable depth defenseman at the NHL level. He played in more than five playoff games in a single run just once in his AHL career.
But it needs to be noted that this is in large part due to the fact that he managed to hold down a full-time NHL roster spot for a half-decade, during the prime years of his career. That’s not something many undersized, undrafted defensemen can boast. In total, Hunt scored 409 points in 763 games across three separate professional leagues.
Beyond club hockey, Hunt had extremely limited international experience. He only represented his native Canada once in IIHF competition, though when he did, he made it count. Hunt represented Canada at the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championships, playing in a bottom-pair role.
In that tournament, Hunt helped Canada win a gold medal, avenging their dramatic overtime defeat to Finland in the prior year’s gold medal game by upsetting the hosts in the quarterfinals. The win in that tournament gave Hunt his taste of a team championship since Bemidji won a conference title in his freshman year.
PHR extends its congratulations to Brad on an outstanding professional career and wishes him all the best in the next chapter.
Photos courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports