NHL veteran and Spokane native Derek Ryan doesn’t shy away from dirty work in depth role as he enters Stanley Cup Final with Edmonton Oilers

Nine years into a National Hockey League career that was already an unconventional one, Derek Ryan has carved out a depth role on an Edmonton Oilers team that is trying to win the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1990.

Game 1 of the series is Saturday in Miami, where the Oilers will face the Florida Panthers, a franchise still seeking its first NHL championship.

A Spokane native, Ryan has played in 570 regular-season games and another 55 in the playoffs. With 84 career goals, he’s counted on now as a penalty killer, a faceoff winner and a reliable defender on an Oilers team led by Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard.

But Ryan, who played four years professionally in Europe before cracking an NHL roster, said he is enjoying his first appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals all the more because he’s not the only one who will remember it: His kids will, too.

“They’re relishing it,” Ryan said by phone Wednesday. “They want the Stanley Cup more than anybody in Edmonton.”

That’s saying something for a town that has seen five Stanley Cup championship teams in the franchise’s 52-year history.

“I just think it’s cool that they are old enough to realize it and remember it,” Ryan said of his children, ages 10 and 7.

Ryan has been around Edmonton enough to be recognized in public, and he knows how much Oilers fans love their hockey.

“It’s hard to really even put into words what it means for a city like this,” Ryan said. “For Spokane, it would be like Gonzaga making it to the NCAA championship, but I don’t know. Edmonton loves their hockey more than Spokane loves their basketball, and that’s saying a lot.”

The 37-year-old Ryan is trying to become the second Spokane native to win a Stanley Cup. Tyler Johnson, who has played in 738 regular-season games and 116 more in the playoffs, won two with the Tampa Bay Lightning, in 2020 and 2021.

“Every year I come back and try to do my thing, try and get better,” Ryan said. “These last several years in Edmonton, the goal has been to get where we are now: the chance to (win) a Stanley Cup.”

In Ryan’s three seasons with the Oilers, they have won six playoff series, advancing as far as the Western Conference final two years ago before this year’s run. The Oilers, who finished with the fifth-most points in the Western Conference and the No. 2 seed in the Pacific Division, beat the Los Angeles Kings in the first round and the Vancouver Canucks in the second before dispatching the top-seeded Dallas Stars in the conference final.

“It’s just so hard to get to where we are now,” Ryan said. “It takes so much from everybody. It takes so much luck and opportunism to advance and to take advantage of the things that come your way. Just because you’re a contender doesn’t mean you’re going to make it to the final. To get to where we are now, you just have to continue to put yourself in those positions year after year.”

Ryan came into the league with the Carolina Hurricanes but never played in the playoffs there. His next stop was with the Calgary Flames for the next three years; with them, he played in 15 playoff games.

The second-oldest player on the Oilers’ roster – only Corey Perry, at 39, is older – Ryan played in 70 regular-season games this year and scored five goals while assisting on seven .

He also won 55.7% of his faceoffs, a touch over his career average of 55.0%.

In the playoffs, Ryan has continued to play depth minutes – about 7 to 11 per game – and he is comfortable with his role.

“On any winning team there are plenty of players that don’t need the glory,” Ryan said. “The guys that are kind of behind the scenes, working as hard as they can, that’s who I am.”

Ryan is still under contract with the Oilers next season, so presumably he has at least one more chance at a Stanley Cup run after this one. But the Oilers aren’t done yet, and neither is Ryan, whose parents, wife and children plan to be at Games 3 and 4 in Edmonton next week.

“The opportunities to play in the Stanley Cup Final are few and far between,” he said. “I think everybody appreciates it.”