Jean-Sebastien Dea Retires After 13 Pro Seasons
The Laval native, a longtime AHL scorer with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Laval, announced the end of his playing career on Instagram.
Jean-Sebastien Dea is done playing. The 32-year-old forward announced his retirement from professional hockey on Instagram, with the news shared by Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports and reported by Pro Hockey Rumors.
Dea turned pro late in the 2013-14 season after three years with the QMJHL's Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, joining the Pittsburgh Penguins organization as an undrafted free agent. He stayed there for most of the next five years, putting up 72 goals and 163 points in 288 games as a reliable secondary scorer.
The NHL came in pieces. Dea played nine games with Pittsburgh across that stretch and scored twice. In 2018-19 he went back and forth between the Penguins and the New Jersey Devils, claimed on waivers each direction, and posted three goals and five points in 20 games with New Jersey.
After that season he moved through the Buffalo Sabres, Montreal Canadiens and Arizona Coyotes organizations. His best year came in 2021-22 with the Laval Rocket, the AHL club in his hometown, where he scored 26 goals and 52 points in 70 games.
The last three seasons were spent overseas, beginning with Metallurg Magnitogorsk and then Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk in the KHL before finishing with Eisbaren Berlin in Germany's DEL.
Dea retires with 153 goals and 341 points in 517 AHL games, plus five goals and seven points in 37 NHL appearances.
