RYAN WANTS TO BE PART OF SOLUTION
Veteran winger glad he wasn't traded, keen to stay healthy after hand injury woes
Bobby Ryan arrived here in the wee hours of Wednesday morning with the Ottawa Senators.
More than once before the National Hockey League trade deadline, the Senators winger thought this might become his permanent home.
The 30-year-old Ryan was able to exhale when he remained with the Senators after the deadline passed Monday. There had been plenty of speculation that Ryan and his $7.5-million annual salary-cap hit would be part of a package that could have included captain Erik Karlsson, but, in the end, general manager Pierre Dorion didn’t make a deal.
While the Vegas Golden Knights were among a half-dozen teams involved in talks with Dorion, the Senators opted not to deal Karlsson because they received no offers even close to what they thought would be required.
So Ryan, who sat on pins and needles while the deadline came and went, knows he’ll finish the season as a Senator, and he’s quite happy to stay.
“It was a long day,” Ryan said before the Senators left Washington, where they had lost 3-2 to the Capitals on Tuesday night. “There’s a lot of phone calls and you’re checking with anybody that you might know on the inside or whatever. It’s just one of those days.
“We all went through it with the same mindset: If it happens great, and, if it doesn’t happen, you come right back and get back to work.”
Ryan has been through this once before, prior to his trade to the Senators in July 2013. He didn’t love this latest round of discussions, but dealt with it as best he could.
“You learn to deal with it a little better,” Ryan said. “You can’t take it personally. It’s a business. We’re in 29th place (overall). I saw this coming and I agree with them. They have an obligation to listen to everything if my name is attached, and they’re trying to get rid of my contract. That’s part of it.
“I don’t take it personally. I figured, if it happened, I would hear from (Dorion) directly and it obviously didn’t. It’s a long day, but that’s all it is.”
There were times Monday when Ryan was convinced he was headed back to the Western Conference, one way or another.
“I heard a couple of times it was close, so I looked at my wife (Danielle) and said, ‘It’s a very real possibility,’” Ryan said. “I don’t want to move. I like it here.”
Of course, if he had the opportunity to go to a 2018 playoff contender, Ryan would have been excited.
“That’s one way to look at it, and that’s one thing I said to my wife. I said, ‘If we go, it looks like a team that’s in the hunt,’ and you can prepare for a stretch, but, other than that, we’re really happy in Ottawa,” he said. “We didn’t want to leave if we didn’t have to and we’re glad that we remained with this club.”
After a strong 2017 playoff run, Ryan hasn’t had the kind of season anybody imagined and he’s not alone among the Senators on that front. He has struggled with hand injuries and only recently returned after missing three weeks. He has 20 games left to try to get what he can out of this season.
“No. 1, I have to stay healthy because that’s a big part of it,” Ryan said. “I’ve played a large part of the last three years with broken hands. That’s hard to do and it wears on you. This is the healthiest I’ve been in a while. I just want to build on that, get some chemistry down the stretch and show that I want to be part of the solution.”
Being healthy going into summer will be key.
“It would help because I’ll be able to get a nice jump on summer on training and just being able to shoot the puck at a good clip, and being able to work on my shot all summer and not have to worry about one step forward and two steps back with my hand is going to be huge,” Ryan said.
The Senators are going to try a rebuild. They moved a small number of players out before the trade deadline and there will be more changes during the offseason. That doesn’t faze Ryan, and he’s OK with whatever direction the club takes.
“I think, when you sign on for a long-term contract, your mindset is that you can build here and you can win here,” Ryan said. “We’ve taken a step back this year, but we took a major step forward this year.
“You look at that, and they kind of write each other off, and, if it’s a complete rebuild and they want me around for it, then I’m certainly doing it because I signed long-term because I want to be part of this organization.”