FORT WAYNE – Matt Syroczynski has filled enough nets with pucks.
Last seen riddling Port Huron and Flint with 11 goals in 12 playoff games, the IHL playoff MVP is hanging up his sniper’s rifle.
The 6-foot-5, 225-pound four-year pro told Komets general manager David Franke on Saturday that he is retiring from the game to go into business back home in New York.
“He’s in business with his brother-in-law, I believe, and he’s working in some sort of health studio/spa workout joint, all that,” Franke said. “He’s running one of those. And in about a year or so, they’re gonna build another in another location, and he’ll be part-owner of that new store.
“Plus, last year when he was here he purchased a house back home.”
The retirement of Syroczynski, removes from play perhaps the Komets’ deadliest stick.
After spending 30 games with Norfolk of the American Hockey League last season, he scored 30 goals – second only to Leo Thomas’ 33 – and 53 points in 48 games for the Komets, then cranked it up another notch in the playoffs, where his 16 points were second only to P.C. Drouin.
It was his second stint with Fort Wayne. In 2006-07, his first year as a pro, he skated 73 games for the Komets and scored 20 goals and 41 points.
He spent most of the next two seasons with Cincinnati of the ECHL, where he scored 55 goals and 90 points in 102 games.
But at the sweet-spot age of 27, the business prospects proved more tempting than the hockey prospects.
“I think he’ll miss the game, but he seems real excited about his future,” Franke said.
