Rypper

Doing eulogies is never an easy task.  However, this one undoubtedly hurts the most.  When I was looking through the ol' Facebook page, something came up in the feed from the Michael Grabner page that also happens to be linked to his Twitter feed (and if you wish to follow him, just look for grabs40). News that one of his former teammates, Rick Rypien, had died.  I didn't want to believe it, but given the source, I had to look around to see who else was breaking the news.  The moment that two of the local (Vancouver) stations and his cousin Angela Rypien said the same thing, my evening just came to a crashing halt.

I don't even know where to begin, but I will do my best here.  Rypien came to the NHL and the Vancouver Canucks from the Regina Pats as an undrafted free agent in 2005.  He managed to play five games in 2005-06, his first year in the league, and two more games the following year.  In 2007-08, Rypien began to establish himself as an enforcer, despite being only 5'11" and 190 lbs.  His breakthrough year was in 2009-10, when he played 69 games and amassed 126 PIM.  He would only play nine games the following year in a season filled with a grabbing of a fan that saw him miss six games and a continuing bout with mental problems that defined his career.  He would see 11 games in a conditioning stint with the Manitoba Moose (the Canucks' AHL affiliate until recently), a sign that he was on the road to recovery.  He signed with the Winnipeg Jets on July 4, and was slated to wear number 11, the same number that his cousin Mark Rypien wore while a member of the Washington football team.

If you were to ask me my favorite Canucks player, one of the first names mentioned wouldn't be Luongo, Henrik or Daniel Sedin, or even Ryan Kesler.  It would be Rypien because he was proof of the adage "It isn't the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog."  While he took on guys his size like Brandon Prust and Zack Stortini, he also took on guys like Hal Gill and Boris Valabik, guys who easily went above the 6'6" mark, which gave him the unofficial title of the best fighter pound for pound.  He wasn't the most gifted, but he was definitely a guy you wanted on the team to stick up for teammates.  Rest in peace, Rypper, and hopefully, you're in a better place now.

And here is the defining fight of Rypien's career in the NHL: