By Jason La Rose via Hockey Canada

Brenden Morrow, who won two gold medals and a World Cup with Team Canada during a 16-year professional career, brought the curtain down Thursday, officially announcing his retirement.

Morrow represented his country on seven occasions, beginning with a silver medal at the 1999 IIHF World Junior Championship in Winnipeg, Man., and finishing with Olympic gold on home ice at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, B.C.

In between, the Carlyle, Sask., native played at four IIHF World Championships, winning gold in 2004 and silver in 2005, and helped Canada to a World Cup of Hockey championship in 2004.

Morrow also played for Team West at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, helping the Saskatchewan/Manitoba entry to a fourth-place finish at the 1995 tournament in Moncton, N.B.

He still holds the Canadian record (and co-holds the tournament record) for assists in a game at the IIHF World Junior Championship; Morrow had six helpers in a 12-2 quarter-final over Kazakhstan on Jan. 2, 1999.

After going goalless in his first 31 international games as a professional (he scored once at the world juniors), Morrow struck twice in the medal round in Vancouver, scoring in a 7-3 quarter-final win over Russia and a 3-2 semifinal win over Slovakia to help Canada to a historic home-ice gold.

He finished his NHL career with 575 points (265 goals, 310 assists) in 991 NHL games with the Dallas Stars, Pittsburgh Penguins, St. Louis Blues, and Tampa Bay Lightning; Morrow captained the Stars from 2006-13, and appeared in a pair of Stanley Cup Finals, with Dallas in 2000 and Tampa Bay last season.

Dallas’ first-round pick in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft, 25th overall, Morrow played four seasons of junior hockey with the Portland Winterhawks, winning the WHL championship and Memorial Cup in 1998.

BRENDEN MORROW