Tucson center Ryan MacInnis (72) and the Roadrunners are in first place and bound for the Calder Cup playoffs.
If you follow hockey closely, you knew about Tucson Roadrunners coach Mike Van Ryn before he was hired last summer.
He was part of Michigan’s Class of 1997, a 10-man class that helped the Wolverines win the 1998 Frozen Four national championship. After two years, much like a Gilbert Arenas or Mike Bibby at Arizona, Van Ryn jumped to the NHL draft and was a first-round selection of the New Jersey Devils.
Now 38, Van Ryn has been coaching for eight seasons; his 283-game NHL career was scuttled by a chronic wrist injury. He has since become one of the hot young names in coaching.
While playing for the NHL’s Florida Panthers, Van Ryn met and married his wife, Amber, who was a Miami Dolphins cheerleader. They have three children under the age of 10, and the Van Ryns aren’t a stay-at-home-and-watch-movies kind of family.
His father, Ted Van Ryn, operates a family fishing camp in Tobermory, Ontario, overlooking the Georgian Bay. Mike inherited that gene. The Van Ryns spend the offseason — what there is of it — fishing in Florida and Canada.
More? Van Ryn is a descendant of Dutch painter Rembrandt.
“I was told by a lot of coaches that I would probably be a coach someday, but at the time I was too worried about playing and fishing,” Van Ryn said with a laugh. “We still live in Florida, I married a Florida girl, and my family is made up of hard-core anglers.
“That’s all we do. You think you can play forever, but when your career ends, you find something else. I’ve been fortunate to have a great family, and add to it with coaching and fishing. It’s a good life.”
Along the way, Amber Van Ryn fought and has overcome breast cancer. “She’s a saint,” Mike says. “If not for her, I don’t know what would happen. She keeps everything moving for us. We’re really enjoying our first year in Tucson.”
The Roadrunners are in first place and bound for the Calder Cup playoffs. Even to a fisherman of Van Ryn’s level, that’s landing a big one.
