Penguins general manager Craig Patrick didn't know what to expect when Ziggy Palffy walked into his office around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.

It didn't take him long to figure it out, however.

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"He closed the door and said, 'Can we talk?' " Patrick said. "I said, 'Sure.' It was pretty apparent as he started that he was headed down that path."

That path was one that led Palffy, 33, a right winger who has been one of the NHL's premier goal-scorers the past decade, directly out of the league.

The Penguins announced Palffy's retirement yesterday, and made a point of saying that it was for "personal reasons." A Slovak newspaper, however, quoted Palffy as saying he had quit because of lingering problems with his right shoulder, which had been surgically repaired twice after he was injured while playing in Los Angeles.

Neither Palffy nor his agent, Paul Kraus, could be reached for comment, but various Penguins officials said they had seen no evidence that he was having significant shoulder trouble.

"We didn't sense that there were any problems with his shoulder," Patrick said, noting that Palffy had passed a physical after the Penguins signed him to a three-year contract worth $13.5 million last summer.

Patrick said the Penguins did not negotiate a financial settlement with Palffy and confirmed that his contract is off their books.

That means Palffy will give up nearly half of the $3.5 million he was being paid this season, as well as the $5.5 million he was due in 2006-07 and $4.5 million he would have gotten in the final year of his deal. Palffy counted $4.5 million against the Penguins' salary-cap limit, which is $39 million this season.

"His salary won't count on our cap, so that money is there to be used, if we choose to use it," Patrick said.

Palffy was the Penguins' No. 2 scorer, with 11 goals and 31 assists in 42 games. He also was their only player to have a positive plus-minus rating (plus-5).

He did not, however, have a goal in his final 14 games with the Penguins, despite spending most of that time on the No. 1 line, with Sidney Crosby as his center.

"He was not playing the way he wished to play, and he's not getting any younger," said coach Michel Therrien, who added that he "did try [to talk Palffy out of quitting], but his mind was set."

Crosby said he was surprised to learn that Palffy was retiring, but that Palffy had been having significant pain. Especially after a hit he absorbed from Nashville's Darcy Hordichuk in the Penguins' 5-4 loss to the Predators Sunday.

"I know that he was hurting," Crosby said. "His shoulder, his back -- his back hurt him for a long time. And with that hit that Hordichuk gave him, I think his shoulder was pretty sore, too."

Patrick declined to say whether Palffy mentioned his shoulder during their conversation and refused to divulge anything else they discussed.

"We talked about a lot of things," he said. "At the end, he just said he wanted to retire for personal reasons. After the discussion, I understand all his issues, and I also respect his decision. He's ready to move on from hockey."

Palffy leaves with 329 goals and 384 assists in 684 NHL games with the Penguins, Los Angeles and the New York Islanders. For most of his career, he was good for roughly one goal every other game, and it was his game-breaking ability that prompted Patrick to sign him last summer.

"He brought a lot of skill," Patrick said. "He was a good complement for our skilled guys. It was good to have him here, to watch him.

"It's unfortunate that we're not going to get to watch him here anymore, but life goes on."