Derek Ryan closes a chapter: 2024-25 Edmonton Oilers player review

Time waits for no man, and this year, it finally caught up to Derek Ryan. At 38 years old, the gas tank hit empty.

Ryan started the year on the Oilers roster playing in 31 of Edmonton’s first 36 games, and while his individual impacts all remained strong, his underlying numbers began to take a hit. Once a shining light in terms of being a strong analytical player, that wasn’t so much the case this season.

Still, there were areas he remained effective — namely in the faceoff dot, winning 61.2 percent of his draws — and his individual game, particularly defensively. Ryan was still contributing offence at a two percent rate above league average offensively and a 10 percent rate above league average defensively, according to HockeyViz, but with his boots slowing down, it became clear there wasn’t a regular spot in the Oilers lineup anymore.

Ryan would land on waivers and head to Bakersfield in the middle of January, getting recalled for two games in March and another in April, marking what very well might be his last NHL games.

His story to get to the NHL — let alone have a 600-game career – is simply remarkable, considering he never played his first NHL game until the 2015-16 season at 29 years old. He arrived in Edmonton in 2021-22 as a player the team really needed: a defensively reliable, right-shot, fourth-line centre. Over the four years in Edmonton he appeared in 261 games, the most for any NHL club, scoring 29 goals and 60 points.

DEREK RYAN’S CAREER SO FAR

OTHER PLAYER REVIEWS

• Evander Kane
• Connor Brown
• Corey Perry
• Jeff Skinner
• Viktor Arvidsson