Mark Messier wasn't expected at Rangers training camp this week, but an announcement on his future could come soon.
The MSG Network confirmed Sunday night that Messier, the NHL's second-leading scorer of all time, will retire after 25 seasons in the league.
The Rangers on Monday morning would not confirm or deny the report, only to say it and Messier would be hosting a noon ET conference call. The team would not discuss the subject matter of the call.
According to several reports in New York-area newspapers over the weekend, Messier was not going to report to Rangers camp, which begins Monday.
Messier, who turns 45 in January, has played 1,756 NHL games, second by 11 games to Gordie Howe's 1,767. He ranks seventh on the all-time goals list, third with 1,193 assists and second behind long-time teammate Wayne Gretzky with 1,887 points.
His last game was on March 31, 2004, an emotional night at Madison Square Garden. Messier left the ice showered with applause and cheers from teammates, family, friends, fans and even the Buffalo Sabres, who beat the Rangers 4-3.
Messier did not play in the Rangers' season finale and the lockout shut down the 2004-05 season.
Messier, a two-time Hart Trophy winner who has appeared in 15 All-Star Games, won six Stanley Cups. He won five with the
Edmonton Oilers, four with Wayne Gretzky and another in 1990. He also led the Rangers to their first Cup in 54 years in 1994. Messier is the only player to captain two different teams to championships.
Back in 1997, Messier and the Rangers were eliminated from the playoffs in Philadelphia. It was the last time New York reached the postseason and the last game he and Wayne Gretzky would play together.
The two former Edmonton Oilers stars have always been linked whether on the ice or in the record book.
But the second time around turned out to be just a one-year partnership as Messier left the Rangers for Vancouver as a free agent following that surprising run with Gretzky to the Eastern Conference finals.
It seemed impossible then that Messier could play anywhere else. Sure he'd won five Stanley Cup championships in Edmonton -- four with Gretzky -- before he was traded to New York in 1991 and instantly became the captain.
But the one title he captured with the Rangers three years later was, in the opinion of New Yorkers, so much more important than the handful of rings he earned with the Oilers.
He promised that the Rangers would win their first championship in 54 years, and then practically willed, rallying them against New Jersey in the heart-stopping conference finals.
The Rangers then beat Vancouver in the Stanley Cup finals and from that moment on, Messier was not only a New York Ranger, he was
the New York Ranger.
"I will go to my grave with feelings and emotions from 1994," Messier said following his last game in March 2004. "Being born in Edmonton and winning a Stanley Cup in Edmonton and knowing what it means to the people and the relationships that athletes have to have with the people in the city and how important that is.
"To experience that again here in New York, that's what to me is some of the most important things in becoming a champion."
When Glen Sather, the architect of the Oilers' dynasty, took over as Rangers GM in 2000 he brought Messier back after a three-year absence.
Messier's second tour with the Rangers never came close to producing the success he had a decade earlier. In four seasons back on Broadway, Messier reached milestones but never made the playoffs.
If this is the end, and the 43-year-old Messier was noncommittal Wednesday night, then he will retire as the NHL's second-leading scorer with 1,887 points -- trailing only Gretzky. The Great One still wasn't far away Wednesday, giving Messier a call as he left the ice following warmups.
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Messier to Retire! 
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