Winter Hawk Kelley Friesen Retires From Competitive Hockey

Friesen is planning on staying involved in the sport. He is currently coaching four minor hockey teams in Saskatchewan and running a hockey school for very young players that are just getting started.

File photo courtesy: Portland Winterhawks

PORTLAND - 18-year-old forward Kelley Friesen of the Portland Winter Hawks has announced that he has decided to leave his WHL career due to ongoing hip problems.

“In talking with several hip specialists and doctors, the message was consistent,” Friesen said, “If I try to practice at my highest level every day, like you have to do in the WHL, and play an average of three games a week, I might be able to do it for a month or two, but then I would have to have the surgery.”

“The surgery would require me to miss another year of hockey. There is also a chance, the doctors said, that I could really hurt it a lot worse and have long-term problems the rest of my life. By deciding to quit now, I might be able to delay the surgery five or six years,” Friesen said.

Friesen has always had hip problems.

Last year, he said he had to take time off twice after tweaking it. Then, he fell awkwardly at this year’s Hawks’ training camp and that forced him to decide to leave the team, go home to Waldheim, Saskatchewan, and seek further treatment and advice.

Friesen’s problem is exactly the opposite of the past hip problems of Winter Hawks’ teammate Michael Sauer, which have been corrected through surgery.

Sauer now plays with no pain at all and looks to be on track for a NHL career.

Friesen has “hip displacia”, a hereditary lack of bone in the hip area. Sauer had too much bone.

So, Friesen’s surgery, which he will have eventually, will involve removing a rib which doctors will use to increase the size of his hip socket. Friesen was born with a socket so small that his hip is always sliding in and out of the socket.

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