PK Subban said Friday that he has completed the $10 million pledge he made in 2015 to the Montreal Children's Hospital, closing out a promise that followed him through the rest of his playing career and into his post-NHL life.

He spoke ahead of a Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation gala and said the road to the full donation was not simple. “It was difficult. Definitely had its difficulties,” Subban said, adding, “Was there any doubt in my mind? No, because I made a commitment that I was always gonna follow through on.”

The pledge has long been one of the most closely watched philanthropic commitments in Canadian sports. The Montreal Gazette has described it as the biggest by an athlete in Canada, and the foundation said the money has helped 100,000 kids. Subban said reaching the target was a serious challenge, made harder by people who questioned whether he would deliver after making the promise at 23 years old.

“At 23 years old, I think for people to see somebody take on that level of responsibility breeds questions,” he said. “For those doubters, I hope they believe in themselves. Don’t doubt other people, just find that courage to believe in yourself, and believe that the impossible is possible, and we just proved that.”

Subban’s promise came while he was still with the Montreal Canadiens, the team that drafted him in 2007 and for which he played from 2010 to 2016. The Canadiens traded him to Nashville a little over a year after the pledge, sending him away from the city where he had become a star defenseman and had already won a Norris Trophy. He later played for the New Jersey Devils and finished his NHL career after the 2021-22 season.

Now working as an analyst for, Subban’s completed pledge gives a tidy ending to one of the more unusual chapters of his career: a public commitment made in the middle of his prime, followed by years of scrutiny, and finally a finish that leaves no doubt about whether he meant it.