As far as he knows, Derek Ryan is the only active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the NHL — at least, he was. On Friday afternoon, he announced his retirement.
Ryan, 38, appeared in 606 regular-season NHL games, with an additional 60 in the playoffs. He was best known for his defensive play, spending significant amounts of time on the penalty kill his entire career.
His route to the NHL was unconventional. It started in the WHL with his hometown Spokane Chiefs, and although several of his teammates would go on to have long NHL careers, it didn’t appear that he would join them.
After his WHL eligibility expired, he went to school at the University of Alberta, where he earned a degree in physiology. While the U of A has great academic programs, Canadian collegiate hockey seldom produces NHL players.
Once he graduated, he moved to Europe, where he played three seasons in Austria and one in Sweden before getting an AHL offer with the Charlotte Checkers, the AHL affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes. His coach with the Chiefs, Bill Peters, was coaching the Hurricanes at the time.
Toward the end of his first AHL season, he got his first NHL callup — and he scored in his NHL debut, becoming the oldest Hurricane to ever do it (29 years, 63 days).
He’d become a regular in the Hurricanes’ lineup the following season and went on to play the next seven seasons without getting sent down at all.
When Peters left to coach the Calgary Flames, Ryan followed him there — and he’s glad he did. It was in Calgary that he met his wife, Bonnie, and it was Bonnie who introduced him to a pair of Latter-day Saint missionaries.
In a league where a lot of norms go against his beliefs, Ryan says he gets a lot of respect.
“The guys are super understanding of my morals and my standards and they respect them,” he told the Deseret News in December. “I’m just another guy. I think that I can be a bit of a beacon of light for some people that need that.”
When his contract with the Flames expired, he moved back up north to Edmonton. But this time, he wasn’t playing for the little-known Golden Bears — he was with the big club, playing alongside the likes of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
He and the Oilers reached the 2023-24 Stanley Cup Final, where they came a goal short of the championship in Game 7. He remained a key component of the Oilers’ penalty kill during that run.
In January, the Oilers sent an aging Ryan back to the AHL. He’d get one final three-game stint in the NHL at the end of the year, where he tallied an assist in his final game.