Terry Ryan (ice hockey, born 1977)

Early life

Ryan was raised in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland. His father, Terry Ryan Sr., played for the Hamilton Red Wings in the OHA and later spent a year in the World Hockey Association with the Minnesota Fighting Saints. When Ryan was 10, his second cousin Michelle Meger was killed in Edmonton by a drunk driver; he later stayed with her parents in Edmonton when drafted to the NHL and continues to advocate against drunk driving. As a youth, he played in the 1990 and 1991 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournaments with a team from Mount Pearl. At 14, he played Junior A hockey for the Quesnel Millionaires, winning the Top Scorer Award and being selected to the Rocky Mountain League All-Star Team.

Playing career

Ryan was the third-overall pick in the WHL bantam draft by the Tri-City Americans. He was named WHL Rookie of the Year in 1993 and Most Improved Player in 1994. The following year, he won the WHL's Plus-Minus Award, was named Most Spirited Player, and finished fourth in league scoring with 50 goals and 60 assists. Selected eighth overall by the Montreal Canadiens in the 1995 NHL entry draft, he played for the Fredericton Canadiens, where he was named Rookie of the Year in 1998, finished second in goals with 21, and led the league in fights with 34. Despite his high draft ranking, Ryan played only eight NHL games over parts of three seasons with Montreal, recording no points and suffering a career-ending ankle injury in 2001. He is often considered a draft bust. He signed with St. John's in 1999–2000 to play for his hometown Maple Leafs but was never signed by Toronto due to a contractual conflict with the Canadiens. In 2000, he won the St. John's Maple Leafs Humanitarian of the Year Award; in 2003 he led the Orlando Seals with six playoff goals to help them win the league championship. On his 47th birthday, January 14, 2024, he signed with the Newfoundland Growlers of the ECHL and played that same day, recording seven penalty minutes after instigating a fight in a 6–2 loss.

Ball hockey career

Ryan suited up for Canada at the ISBHF ball hockey worlds six times between 2003 and 2013, with tournaments held in Switzerland, Pittsburgh, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and his hometown of St. John’s. He helped the national side capture gold in 2003 and 2007, silver in 2011, and bronze in 2013. During the 2011 event in Bratislava, he finished as Canada’s top scorer. Domestically, he won national ball hockey titles with the Montreal Black Knights in 2008 and the Newfoundland Black Horse in 2010. He made the provincial finals in 2016. In 2018, his Colonial Auto Parts squad won the Canadian men’s masters championship, while Black Horse earned silver in the senior men’s A division.

Later life

Terry Ryan played senior hockey in Newfoundland for the St. John's Capitals and the Clarenville Caribous, who fell to the Dundas Real McCoys in overtime during the 2014 Allan Cup final. He spent two seasons with his hometown Mount Pearl Blades, neither of which ended in a playoff berth. In 2006, he led the Avalon East League and the Newfoundland Provincial League in scoring, and the following year he was named league MVP while again topping the Avalon East scoring charts. After joining the Bentley Generals of the Alberta Senior Hockey League in 2008, he helped them earn a silver medal at the Allan Cup and was once more the top scorer. During summers, he plays baseball for the Mount Pearl Knights and swims in the Rennies River swimming hole near Agnes Pratt Mercy Home.

In the film industry, Ryan has appeared in small roles on CBC's Republic of Doyle, played himself on OLN's Road Hockey Rumble, and was Zombie #22 in Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead (2004). He was the first on-screen casualty in the series Frontier, playing British Soldier #1, and later appeared in Frontier Season 2, Little Dog, Caught, Schitt's Creek, and several short films. He wrote and starred in the short film A Stand In. He has been a guest on the hockey podcast Spittin' Chiclets and played a hockey player on Letterkenny, whose Newfie chirps annoyed the home bench. He holds a regular role on the spinoff Shoresy and appears in the 2024 film Skeet.

Ryan earned a bachelor of arts in Folklore and English and published his first book, Tales of a First Round Nothing, in May 2014. He has tried stand-up comedy, opening for Gerry Dee in Oshawa in 2016. He ran unsuccessfully for Mount Pearl city council in 2017 and again in 2021.