Michael Ryder – Athlete

Inducted 2019

Bonavista native, Michael Ryder has enjoyed an incredibly successful hockey career. After playing midget hockey in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ryder was given the opportunity to try out for the Quebec Major Junior League’s Hull Olympics where he showed his skill scoring 50 goals. After his first year in the Q, the Montreal Canadians made him the 216th pick for the NHL draft in 1998. Two years later, he was a member of Team Canada winning a bronze medal in the World Junior Championship. Ryder moved around between the AHL and the East Coast Hockey League for a few years but in 2003, Michael made the Montreal Canadiens and would not play in the minors again. In his first season with the Canadians, Michael was a hard shooting right- winger scoring 25 goals and 63 points, and was a finalist for the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year. In 2008, Ryder signed with the Boston Bruins for 3 years where he won the Stanley Cup in 2011 when the Bruins defeated the Vancouver Canucks. Ryder became the second native of Newfoundland and Labrador to a win a Stanley Cup championship.

In addition to playing with Montreal and Boston, Ryder also played with the Dallas Stars and the New Jersey Devils, the team with which he closed out his career. In 2015, Ryder retired after an 11-year NHL career with 237 goals and 484 career NHL points the most of any Newfoundlander. For his incredible career, Ryder was inducted into the Hockey NL Hall of Fame in 2017 and is known as one of the province’s most successful hockey players.