Rick Rypien May have Died of a Disease, Kane to wear #9

Rick's uncle said that he was "battling a disease not unlike cancer," in a statement issued after the funeral today.



"He fought this disease with everything he had in him," he said. "If you knew Rick he fought with everything he had in him. Unfortunately the disease won the battle.



"Be thankful the battle he faced is over."



I'm still curious of what exactly is going on here. On the one hand, you have statements from the Jets about "an incident". It was also suggested that there wasn't "anything would trigger it leading up". There was also the note of "something happening quickly" or everyone missing the boat. Those statements were said by Craig Heisinger, Winnipeg senior vice president and director of hockey operations/assistant general. This man was not just a boss, but considered to be a friend, so you have to have a lot of faith in his words. And frankly, those words do not sound like a disease taking over, particularly the missing the boat part.



This syncs up with reports about Rypien having depression, but seem contradictory to statements issued by the uncle and from Rypien himself regarding leaving the Canucks. Although, Rick's statements at the time seemed more like a psycological issue and not a physical disease.



“(The issues) are behind me and one thing I want to 100% clarify is that there’s no substance abuse at all — it’s the farthest thing from it,” said Rypien. “This is a personal matter. It’s kind of a rare issue and even though it’s taken me away from the game I love, doing the work I’ve done the last couple of months I’ve made a lot of gains as a person and as an individual.



“I got to really understand and have a relationship with myself, which I’ve never had the opportunity to do before. With how far I’ve come and progressed these last few months, I really believe deep down that it’s going to benefit my on-ice performance.”



Eventually, Rypien plans to reveal additional details of what he’s gone through.



"The more I go on, the more I can talk about it and hopefully, one day I can help other hockey players who might be experiencing difficulties with whatever they’re dealing with off the ice,” said Rypien.



I would swear those are coming from a man battling personal, mental issues. Maybe those are the statements of a man battling a physical illness, not unlike cancer as his uncle suggests. Then again, maybe I'm taking the comments by the uncle too literal and the uncle was implying that psycological illnesses (such as, perhaps, depression) are just as serious as physical illnesses and require the same level of attention, understanding, research, and treatment.



Regardless, it's a tragedy and is still surrounded in mystery (at least in my opinion).



Ironically, this is the second active player to pass away in the franchise who wore the number 37. Rick wore the number in his tenure with Vancouver and the minors while Dan Snyder wore the number 37 in Atlanta.



I don't believe in curses, but I'm thinking it is time to retire the number 37 with this franchise as a tribute to two lives taken too soon. One by someone else (Dany Heatley) and that person's decision to do stupid things (drive recklessly) and one who, while details are still emerging, lost a battle with a disease.



The only other person in the franchise to wear the number was Herbert Vasiljevs in the 1999-2000 season and the 2000-2001 season.



Of course, most players want to keep their number, but circumstances and "star" players take precidence. So, who wore the 37 last season therefore making them the most likely to want to continue wearing it if traded to the Jets? 15 NHL-ers, including Rypien:



1 Patrice Bergeron BOS

2 Tim Brent TOR

3 Jeremy Colliton NYI

4 Matt Ellis BUF

5 Doug Janik DET

6 Corey Locke OTT

7 Ryan O'Reilly COL

8 Nathan Oystrick STL

9 Richard Petiot EDM

10 Brandon Pirri CHI

11 Jarkko Ruutu ANA

12 Bill Thomas FLA

13 Karlis Skrastins DAL

14 Brian Strait PIT

15 Rick Rypien VAN



None of those names immediately strike me as ones that can't be talked out of their number unofficially if Winnipeg comes a knocking on their agent's door. In fact, at least some of these guys have had more than one number anyway, like Nathan Oystrick. He wore 7 in ATL in '09, 41 in Anaheim in '10, and 37 last season in STL.



Of course, there may be AHL players or awesome skaters yet to be drafted that may find themselves in a Jets jersey one day that had the 37 in mind. But again, I think anyone coming in to the franchise would be reluctant to wear the 37 given the two deaths associated with it. Not necessarily because of a "curse" or anything, but out of respect and honor. So why not make it official?



I already suggested this once before as a nod to the Atlanta Thrashers, but now it can be used for two lives cut short from both squads.



I also mentioned in that previous post that Evander Kane may wear the number 9. To sum up, the number 9 was retired by the old Jets franchise and remains retired in Phoenix for Bobby Hull. Kane wanted to wear it, but wanted Hull's blessings.



Well, he got it. So now Kane will wear the number 9 on the ice for the Winnipeg Jets. Apparently, he was strongly encouraged to do so by the team.



This makes sense because it helps establish the team as a new Jets team, not the old Jets team. You know what else would have helped distinguish the old Jets from the new Jets? Not naming the team "Jets".



Hopefully, I can talk in a future post about Kane's excitement about going up to Winnipeg. It's all in that link above talking about the number. Basically, he's excited to play in a place with some stability with the leadership and lots of passionate fans, and is somewhat excited about the colder, snowy conditions because "that's hockey". He did give a small shout out to Atlanta fans saying there was support, and that's nice. Frankly, he has no further ties to the city (as far as I know), so he could bash ATL all he wanted to and not really suffer a lot of consequences.



So thank you Evander. Best of luck.