Paulus Oliver Rinne is walking now.

His father, Pekka Rinne, is smiling.

That's because father has been there every step of the way with 1-year-old son, the one who helped convince him it was time.

Pekka Rinne is a first-time, full-time father now, not a hockey player.

And he's OK with that, so far.

The former Nashville Predators goalie stepped away from professional hockey last summer, when he announced his retirement after spending his entire 15-year NHL career with the team that picked him in eighth round of the 2004 draft.

"There's days I wish I was still playing, like, 'Get me out of here,'" Rinne joked earlier this week during an interview with The Tennessean.

Rinne, of course, wasn't going to leave it at that.

Life is much deeper now.

"It's been awesome, though," he said of retirement. "It's obviously been a big change. It's like a U-turn, just a totally different path.

"Even though I was mentally prepared for it, my son helped a lot (with the decision to retire). Anybody who has a kid knows it takes a lot of time and dedication, so it's been very meaningful. I really enjoy being a dad and having a different life now."

Since retiring, the 39-year-old Rinne has spent most of his time in his native Finland, with his fiance, Erika Parkko, and their son and their dog and his parents and his sisters and his friends.

He's been skiing, something he hadn't done in 20 years. He's been playing some pickup hockey -- as a forward with, according to him, "sick handles."

"Trying to dangle people, but it never works," he said with a laugh.

He's been watching his boy grow. All things he hasn't been able to do much of during career he spent setting franchise records and winning a Vezina Trophy and helping make hockey relevant in a southern market.

"For so long you live in a very narrow lane," he said. "Every year kind of repeats itself and everything is so focused on hockey, you're so focused on your career. Now you can kind of take a step back from that and be free."

His path has led him and his family and his son — but not his dog, Pabla, this time — back to Nashville for his No. 35 retirement ceremony Thursday at Bridgestone Arena. Oh, and for the first NHL outdoor game in the city's history Saturday at Nissan Stadium on Saturday.

Not to mention, the Nashville Zoo named a goat after him.

Rinne will be the first player in franchise history to have his number hanging from rafters, fitting for the man general manager David Poile's often referred to as the "face of the franchise." The man Poile drafted and watched blossom. The man Poile did not want to retire.

"We know time catches up to all of us, especially in an athlete’s life," Poile told The Tennessean in 2020, about the time Rinne began considering retirement.

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Though he never was able to deliver the Stanley Cup-winning speech he'd rehearsed so many times during drives through Nashville, he did help the franchise become relevant.

He will go back to Finland, in March, though. To his new life as Pekka Rinne the father, the boyfriend, the friend, the son.

He will wake up around 7:30 a.m. most days, like he usually does. He'll cook breakfast while "mommy is doing her thing." Then he'll play with Paulus before putting him down for nap. An early afternoon workout likely will follow. Then some lunch with those he has hardly seen through the years.

"Very, very simple life," he said.

One that has become his new normal.

"There's always going to be that side of me that's going to miss hockey," he said. "Miss being at the rink. Miss being around the guys in the locker room. But it's a totally different normal now."

Rinne said he and Erika kind of live day to day, don't look too far into the future, save for one thing: Rinne said it's become clear to him that in "some aspect I want to stay involved in hockey.

He also has allowed himself to look into the past for the first time. He's allowed himself to learn about life after hockey, about being the father he always dreamed of being at a time he perhaps felt he couldn't be one.

That's all real now.

"I feel like the hockey career is still so fresh," he said. "It feels like it happened a few weeks ago. It's been great, though, finally reflecting back on my career. That's the first time I've had a chance to do that."

Pekka Rinne is learning to walk again.

This time he's seeing it up close. This time he's watching from afar.

Reach Paul Skrbina at pskrbina@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @PaulSkrbina.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville Predators jersey retirement: Pekka Rinne relishing being dad