Jeremy Roenick reached the pinnacle of his career Monday night as he was officially inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

But nearly 20 years ago, with his reputation in tatters, his drinking becoming problematic, and believing his once-illustrious career was at its end, Roenick fell into a dark place.

Following a forgettable season with the Phoenix Coyotes in 2006-07, Roenick no longer felt wanted and sank into a deep funk, thinking he was out of the game for good just short of a major milestone.

“No calls came on (July) 1, no calls came on August 1,” Roenick said in his induction speech Monday night in Toronto. “Depression and heavy drinking had set in.”

In the summer of 2007, Roenick even texted a reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer, writing, “I’m retiring; is that still news?”

“Now I’ve realized I’ve reached a point where my attitude, my career, my reputation, is now at an all-time low,” Roenick told TSN in a segment on him that aired Saturday night called “American Beaut.”

“I’m (five) goals away from 500, and here I am sitting. Is this going to be my legacy? And I remember diving into a mental depression.”

That’s when Roenick heard from his former teammate with the Chicago Blackhawks.

“I was in Idaho with my family and my angel called, Doug Wilson, my first NHL roommate and the GM of the San Jose Sharks,” Roenick said Monday.

Wilson was just a few years into his tenure as the Sharks general manager when he spoke with Roenick, who he was teammates with in Chicago from 1988 to 1991.

Wilson met with Roenick and believed the forward still had the desire to work and compete. And one week before the Sharks started training camp in 2007, Wilson signed him to a one-year contract.

Publicly, Wilson had his reasons for signing the then-37-year-old forward after the Sharks lost in the second round of the playoffs to the Detroit Red Wings just a few months earlier.

“Spice,” Wilson said then. “You know what Jeremy is? He’s like adding a little spice to the recipe.”

Wilson did something else for the gregarious and self-described loudmouth veteran — he gave him a lifeline.

“He asked me to come see him in San Jose, and I flew out the next day,” Roenick said Monday of Wilson. “He could see the desperation on my face while on the golf course, and he asked me if I’d like to come play for the Sharks. I said, ‘Hell yes.’

“ ‘OK,’ he said. ‘But I have three rules. One, you have to play for the league minimum. Two, no media, unless we ask you to — which was very hard. And number three, no alcohol.

“I dumped the beer I had in my hand out and immediately shook his hand, and I scored my 500th goal three months later.”

Roenick recommitted himself to the game.

“Doug Wilson gave me the true honor of retiring with respect,” Roenick told TSN, “and probably saved me from going into a life that I was probably not going to survive.”

Roenick scored his 500th career NHL goal in November of that season and had a productive year with 14 goals and 33 points. His best moment as a Shark came in the first round of the 2008 playoffs when he had two goals and two assists in a 5-3 win over the Calgary Flames in a decisive Game 7.

“Thank you, Doug Wilson, for being a great friend, but more important, for being a friend when I needed it the most,” Roenick said Monday. “I would not be up here — and I don’t mean up here (on stage) — if it wasn’t for you. You truly saved my life.”

Roenick did not reach his goal of winning the Stanley Cup, as the Sharks lost in the next round to the Dallas Stars. After Roenick signed another one-year contract with the Sharks for the 2008-09 season, San Jose, as Presidents’ Trophy winners, lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Anaheim Ducks.

Roenick retired in August 2009 in San Jose with 513 goals and 1,216 points in 1,363 regular-season games. His point total ranks 48th on the NHL’s all-time list.

“In Phoenix, I wasn’t able to say goodbye to the game,” Roenick said at his retirement news conference. “Doug Wilson and the San Jose Sharks gave me my life back. I can sit here and make my own decision to hang them up and move on.”

Despite the peaceful ending to his playing career, Roenick still made waves among Sharks fans by calling out “Mr. Shark” Patrick Marleau on at least a couple of occasions.

In 2011, after the Sharks lost a playoff game to the Red Wings, Roenick, then a television analyst, said Marleau put forth a “gutless, gutless performance.” Roenick later admitted to a poor choice of words but didn’t backtrack on his criticism of Marleau, feeling that despite being a highly skilled player, he needed to play with more heart.

In his 2012 book, “J.R.: My Life as the Most Outspoken, Fearless and Hard-Hitting Man in Hockey,” Roenick wrote about the problems he had with Marleau.

In a chapter called “Five Players I Hated During My Career,” Roenick wrote that on one occasion, he became so frustrated with the less-emotional Marleau that he drove to his house in an effort to inspire him.

“I could tell 10 minutes into our conversation that I was wasting my time,” Roenick wrote. “He considered my arrival at his house an intrusion. He listened to me, but he never did anything to change the way he was.”

Marleau would fire back at Roenick.

“He’s got his own agenda,” Marleau told this news organization in 2012 when asked about Roenick. “He’s saying stuff so people watch. I understand that. I don’t have to like it or agree with it, but he’s trying to get viewers like you’re trying to get people to read the paper.

“I can see how people would think that because I’m very stoic,” Marleau added. “I tried to keep it controlled, but believe me, the emotions are running. Sometimes I think if you just show emotion to show it, you’re draining yourself, and it’s not really for anybody’s benefit.”

As Roenick enters the hall, he admits he often speaks before he thinks, as when NBC Sports suspended him for making lewd and sexual comments about a coworker.

“I enjoyed the microphone, I enjoyed the camera,” Roenick said in the TSN piece. “I was always one that needed to be heard. … People either loved it or hated it. Sometimes it got me into trouble.”