{"id":122593,"date":"2025-09-05T20:02:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T20:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/122593\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T20:02:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T20:02:10","slug":"derek-ryan-announces-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/122593\/","title":{"rendered":"Derek Ryan Announces Retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Center\u00a0Derek Ryan<\/a>\u00a0has decided on retirement, he told Bob Stauffer of Oilers Now on 880 CHED<\/a> yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m retiring. We, my family, are back home in Spokane,\u201d he told Stauffer. \u201cThe kids started at their new school here today. I didn\u2019t actively look for a job this off-season. Europe could\u2019ve been an option, maybe other NHL teams, but if it wasn\u2019t going to be Edmonton, I didn\u2019t want to move the family again. As the kids get older that gets harder. We had good roots in Edmonton, and, shoot, I\u2019m almost 40. It\u2019s nice to settle in here in Spokane. We have our house, friends, and family. It\u2019s nice to be home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Not only is Ryan from Spokane, but it\u2019s where he began his junior career with the WHL\u2019s Spokane Chiefs all the way back in 2004. His three-year run there preceded one of the most unique pathways to becoming an NHL fixture in recent memory.<\/p>\n

Undrafted, Ryan opted to enter the Canadian university system when his junior eligibility ran out in 2007. That\u2019s not uncommon in and of itself, but it\u2019s not a pathway many future NHLers undertake. Those who do rarely spend a full four years there, but that\u2019s exactly what Ryan did. He played for the University of Alberta from 2007 to 2011, leading the CIS West in scoring in his senior season with a 17-30\u201347 line in 28 games.<\/p>\n

Ryan, already 25 years old at the time, then decided to make the jump overseas instead of pursuing a professional career stateside. It was in Europe that the 5\u201910\u201d, 185-lb center unlocked offensive dominance. He spent three years in the EBEL (now ICEHL), Austria\u2019s top league, playing with Villacher SV (2012-14) and Hungarian club Feh\u00e9rv\u00e1r AV19 (2011-12). He recorded 199 points in just 158 EBEL games over that span, including a spectacular 2013-14 campaign that saw him lead the league with 38 goals in 54 games to earn MVP honors.<\/p>\n

He then made the jump to higher-level European pro hockey in Sweden, a decision that finally put him on the NHL\u2019s radar. He spent one year with the SHL\u2019s \u00d6rebro HK, where he erupted for a 15-45\u201360 line in 55 games to lead one of Europe\u2019s top leagues in assists and points, being named the SHL\u2019s MVP and Forward of the Year.<\/p>\n

Ryan finally landed a two-way deal with the Hurricanes \u2013 inking his first NHL contract at age 28 \u2013 the following summer. He was immediately named the captain of the AHL\u2019s Charlotte Checkers, their minor-league affiliate at the time, and was an AHL All-Star with 55 points in 70 games. He also got his first taste of NHL hockey late in the season, scoring his first goal in his first game of a six-game call-up.<\/p>\n

That trial run kicked off an NHL career spanning over 600 games, most of which were played after his 30th birthday. He quickly established himself as a defensively responsible third-line pivot in Carolina, scoring 69 points in 153 games for the club while averaging over 15 minutes per night. He reached unrestricted free agency in 2018 and got rewarded by the Flames, signing a three-year, $9.375MM contract to return to the province where he played college hockey.<\/p>\n

Ryan\u2019s first season in Calgary was arguably the best of his career. He recorded a 13-25\u201338 scoring line in 81 games and, while he saw a reduction in ice time, won a team-high 58.2% of his faceoffs and added a +21 rating. That earned him Selke Trophy consideration, landing a fifth-place vote for the only time in his career.<\/p>\n

While Ryan\u2019s productivity and usage declined steadily over the course of his tenure with the Flames, that didn\u2019t mean he was in an unfettered downward spiral. He still landed a multi-year deal in free agency from the cross-provincial rival Oilers in 2021, signing a two-year, $2.5MM pact to round out their fourth line.<\/p>\n

That kicked off a four-year run for Ryan in Edmonton, the longest of his three NHL stops and a run that concluded just a few months ago. He was a regular from 2021 to 2024, appearing in at least 70 games for his first three years there, but was relegated to the press box for a good chunk of last season and even landed on waivers. He totaled 29 goals and 60 points in 261 games for Edmonton, appearing in 19 games in their run to the 2024 Stanley Cup Final but no playing time last postseason. He scored one goal and six points in 36 NHL games last season and also had eight points in 13 games for AHL Bakersfield after clearing waivers, his first minor-league action in nearly a decade.<\/p>\n

Ryan ends his rather remarkable pro career with 82 goals, 127 assists, and 209 points in 606 NHL regular-season games with a +14 rating. He was also one of the better faceoff-takers of the last decade, winning 55.3% of his draws.<\/p>\n

PHR congratulates Ryan on his persevering career and wishes him the best in his post-playing future.<\/p>\n

Image courtesy of Walter Tychnowicz-Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Center\u00a0Derek Ryan\u00a0has decided on retirement, he told Bob Stauffer of Oilers Now on 880 CHED yesterday. \u201cI\u2019m retiring.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,762,48,748,67971,453,4247,448,1705,32249,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-122593","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary-flames","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-carolina-hurricanes","12":"tag-derek-ryan","13":"tag-edmonton-oilers","14":"tag-newsstand","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-retirement","17":"tag-retirements","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}