Jeremy Roenick reached the pinnacle of his career Monday night as the former Chicago Blackhawks great was 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.

After 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, 54, 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 Philadelphia Inquirer reporter: “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 for a segment 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 Hawks teammate.

“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, whom he was teammates with in Chicago from 1988 to 1991.

Wilson met with Roenick and believed he 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. “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 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 didn’t reach his goal of winning the Stanley Cup, as the Sharks lost in the next round to the Dallas Stars. After he signed another one-year contract with the Sharks for 2008-09, they won the Presidents’ Trophy for the best regular-season record but lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Anaheim Ducks.

Roenick retired in August 2009 with 513 goals and 1,216 points in 1,363 regular-season games for the Hawks (1988-96), Coyotes (two stints), Philadelphia Flyers, Los Angeles Kings and Sharks. 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.”

The colorful, Boston-born winger added 122 points (53 goals, 69 assists) in 154 playoff games and won a silver medal with Team USA at the 2002 Olympics.

“I love this game,” he said. “It’s been such a huge part of my life for most of my life.”

As Roenick enters the hall after a 12-year wait, 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.”