He carried a big stick, never talked softly

Roenick, 39, simply reached the point in his life where he officially called it quits as an NHL player, his final line reading 1,363 games, 513 goals, and 1,216 points. Not bad for a kid who grew up around Hartford, rooting for the legendary Gordie Howe and the Whalers, then moved here to the South Shore when his parents felt he needed to be closer to Boston for his game to blossom.

“If it wasn’t for them,’’ Roenick mused yesterday, amid a farewell ceremony that ran in excess of an hour in San Jose, his last NHL port of call, “driving hours and hours, with terrible smells in the back of the car . . . we moved to Boston so I could have a better place to play.’’

At his best, which came not long after he graduated from Thayer Academy, the supercharged and fearless Roenick was among the game’s most exhilarating performers. He eschewed a chance to go to Boston College, opted instead to play Canadian junior hockey, and by the age of 19 was a mainstay in the Chicago Blackhawks lineup, with three seasons of 100-plus points tacked to his résumé by the end of his fifth season.

“He was like a cannonball out there,’’ recalled San Jose general manager Doug Wilson, who also was Roenick’s first roommate in Chicago. “The pilot light never went out.’’

Ultimately, though, the physical grind caught up with Roenick. He was set to retire two years ago, in part because his body and game were faltering, only to return when Wilson wooed him to the Bay area with a realistic chance to win his first Stanley Cup. The championship never came, even with Roenick morphing into a role player as a semi-defensive specialist, and then a couple of shoulder injuries last season limited him to 42 games. The bangs and bruises got to be too much.

In the end, he said, retiring “wasn’t that hard a decision.’’

Over the course of the farewell yesterday that was staged inside the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Roenick was lavished with emotional and sentimental phone calls from the likes of fellow great American players Mike Modano, Keith Tkachuk, and Chris Chelios. There were enough “I love yous’’ exchanged that if a caller errantly tapped into the phone conversation, the dialogue could have been mistaken for a late-night dating line. (Note to editor: Make sure when the monthly phone bill arrives we weren’t charged 99 cents per minute for that 64-minute Roenick conference call.)

Tkachuk, amid the manly mushiness, made it clear as a proud Medfordite that kids from Marshfield and Thayer Academy are stretching it somethin’ wicked to claim they are truly from the Hub of Hockey.

“You’re from the rich part of the South Shore,’’ reminded Tkachuk, “and that’s not really Boston.’’

Tkachuk added that he figures Roenick’s career path will lead next to (A) an appearance on “Dancing with the Stars’’ or (B) a spot as a judge on “American Idol.’’

Roenick actually remained decidedly noncommittal about his immediate future. TV is a possibility, he said. He already has some studio experience as a commentator during the Stanley Cup playoffs. He figures he might like a role in team management, no doubt something akin to Cam Neely’s job (i.e. Prince of Passion) on Causeway Street. Because he danced pretty well on skates, he figures, maybe Tkachuk wasn’t far off with that “Dancing with the Stars’’ idea.

“But the love in my heart is too big for the game,’’ said Roenick, who broke into tears a few times during the ceremony. “I’ll never go away.’’

Wilson, in looking back over Roenick’s career, referred to his friend’s “unfiltered’’ comments of the last 20 years, some of which raised both eyebrows and tempers. During the 2004-05 lockout, Roenick was quoted as saying the fans who depicted the players as spoiled could “kiss my ass.’’ At the same time, he was critical of the Players Association’s leadership, which then was under the ham-fisted and ultimately paralyzing control of Bob Goodenow.

During the 1996 playoffs, while still with the Hawks, Roenick traded verbal jousts with Hall of Fame goalie Patrick Roy, who claimed that even if Roenick had been awarded a penalty shot on a controversial play, “I would have saved it anyway.’’ JR shot back that in a prior game St. Patrick must have been preoccupied, fishing “his jock out of the rafters.’’ As a final retort, Roy added, “I really cannot hear what Jeremy says because I’ve got my two Stanley Cup rings plugging my ear.’’ About a month later, Roy had a third ring, leading the Avalanche to the Cup.

Whatever he said along the way, Roenick said yesterday, he would not take any of it back.

“I can honestly tell you that I spoke from the heart, it was how I was feeling,’’ he said. “Some people didn’t like it. Some people didn’t enjoy it. Some thought I was arrogant, and that’s a little bit true. But I didn’t want to be generic and cliched. Fans and media don’t want to hear generic stuff.’’

Although he never won a Cup, Roenick stands tied for 39th all-time in points and 36th all-time in goals. Looking through the US prism, only Modano and Phil Housley are ahead of him on the points list and only Modano and Tkachuk in goal scoring. He should be a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame.

“No one’s got a bigger heart than you,’’ lauded Chelios.

On Sunday, the NHL Network will air nine hours of all-Roenick programming, calling it, “JR: An American Original.’’ Sounds like a bit much, which means, all things considered, they’ve nailed it.

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at dupont@globe.com.