Rick Rypien was a great teammate, always willing to step up when a teammate was in trouble, remembers Jason Jaffray, a former teammate of Rypien's with the Manitoba Moose, the former American Hockey League affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks.
Rypien, 27, was found dead on Aug. 15 in his hometown of Coleman. RCMP determined it to be a “non-suspicious death.”
Jaffray, an Olds native, played with Rypien for parts of two years. The two were rookies together with the Moose in 2004-05.
“He was a really good friend of mine and really classy guy,” Jaffray said in an interview from the Olds Sports Complex on Wednesday, where he was instructing at a hockey school for minor hockey players. “He had some personal problems but it looked like he had gotten them taken care of last year. It's been a tough last couple of days.”
Because of the gritty style that Rypien played, Jaffray said he was a fan favourite both with the Moose and in Vancouver with the Canucks.
“He was always one of the most exciting guys to watch out on the ice, the way he fought and the way he threw the body around. For a small guy he was always exciting to watch,” Jaffray said of the five-foot-eleven, 190-pound forward.
“He was a great teammate. When you looked across the dressing room into his eyes (you knew) that he was going to give 110 per cent every time he was on the ice. If you ever needed a spark out on the ice, he was the first guy to step up. He was one of those third-, fourth-line guys that really brings the team together,” he said.
Rypien performed the toughest job in hockey — protecting teammates and the best players — and he did it without a lot of recognition, Jaffray said.
“It's a tough job for anybody to do at any level when you have to fight … but he did it extremely well. He was an incredible individual that was pretty quiet off the ice, but you put him on the ice and he made noise for sure,” he said.
Rypien and Jaffray would have been teammates in Winnipeg again in 2011-12, as both had signed as free agents with the Jets.
“We actually talked in June about both signing with the Jets before we were free agents. He was extremely excited and I was extremely excited and I'm sure a lot of Winnipeg was extremely excited to see both of us back. He was a fan favourite when he was there and he will be deeply missed,” Jaffray said.
