Jake Schroeder, the Avalanche’s longtime national anthem singer, will retire after the upcoming Stanley Cup Playoff games at the Ball Arena, he told the Denver Post.

He said the team would introduce another singer in the playoffs as part of the transition.

Schroeder, 54, sang his 1,000th anthem for an Avalanche game Nov. 13 and has been performing full-time since the 1997-98 season.

“I will always be an Avs fan,” he said in a phone interview. “I’m really at an exciting time in my life and I’m really, really grateful – especially for the people at Ball Arena who are so nice to me. Fans over the years have been so kind to me.

Schroeder, who performed his first anthem for the Avalanche while frontman of Opie Gone Bad, intends to focus more on his family and his nonprofit business, D-Day Leadership Academy, of which he is the director. His late father was a veteran and that’s why the national anthem means so much to him.

“After a lot of thinking and the end of COVID and things for my job getting busier and busier with a program that I created that is really, really important to me, and talking to my family, 25 and 1 000 hymns is awesome,” Schroeder mentioned. “I’m really, really proud of everything I’ve done, anthem-wise, for the Avalanche, and I think it’s time to move on. I think it’s time for them to fill up with new blood and move on.

“So that’s what I’m going to do. I will finish these playoffs and that will be it for me.

Schroeder, however, said he could make an appearance and sing at future Avalanche games if requested by the club. He says he doesn’t know who could replace him full-time.

“I’m sure they’ll be great singers and bring a lot of energy to the building,” Schroeder said.