Marco Scandella's NHL career is officially over.

Veteran National Hockey League defenseman Marco Scandella is officially calling it a career.

On Monday morning, NHL insider Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports broke the news when he revealed that Scandella has chosen to retire after declining an offer to play in Europe this season, choosing instead to hang up his skates for good. The announcement was accompanied with a short video of Scandella talking to a member of the St. Louis Blues training staff, although it is difficult to make out much of anything due to the large amount of background noise.

Scandella, a former second round pick (55th overall) of the Minnesota Wild at the 2008 NHL Entry Draft had quite an extensive career in the NHL, appearing in a total of 784 career games in which he scored 5 goals and added 119 assists for a total of 170 career points. That career would see him play for several teams, including the aforementioned Wild, the Buffalo Sabres, the St. Louis Blues, and even his hometown team in the Montreal Canadiens.

Although Scandella never achieved the ultimate goal of capturing a Stanley Cup in the NHL, he will retire with some impressive hardware in his trophy case. Scandella saw great success on the international stage capturing a gold medal for Canada at the under 18 championship in 2008 as well as a silver medal at the World Junior championship in 2010.

I would like to wish Scandella all the best in his retirement as well as in whatever future endeavors may come his way in the next chapter of his life.