Photo: Michaeline Veluvolu
Rochester Americans captain Michael Mersch has announced his retirement from professional hockey, completing a 1o-year playing career that featured more than 600 professional games.
A native of Park Ridge, Ill., Mersch spent his final four seasons in Rochester, including three as team captain. He recorded 156 points in 220 games with the club and helped them to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2023, the franchise’s deepest playoff run in nearly 20 years.
Mersch totaled 188 goals and 213 assists for 401 points in 597 career AHL games with Rochester, Texas, Ontario and Manchester. He had five 20-goal seasons and added 24 goals and 26 assists in 50 postseason games, highlighted by a Calder Cup championship with Manchester as a rookie in 2015.
Selected by Los Angeles in the fourth round of the 2011 NHL Draft, Mersch skated in 17 games in the NHL with the Kings, collecting one goal and two assists. Before turning pro, he was an All-American at the University of Wisconsin.
