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NHLer Michael Ryder plays with a heavy heart as troubled brother Daniel struggles
Players in the NHL lead a high-profile, glamorous life for as long as their careers last.
But money can't buy happiness. Or good fortune for those you love. New Jersey Devils right-winger Michael Ryder, born and raised in Bonavista, Nfld., plays with a heavy heart.
His brother Daniel, seven years younger and once considered a far finer NHL prospect than his big brother, is at home with their parents in Bonavista, suffering from psychosis so severe it doesn't seem as though anything is helping.
The Ryder family's story was brought to light Monday in a story by Rich Chere for NJ.com, the online hub for a chain of New Jersey newspapers, including the Newark Star-Ledger.
It's a heartbreaker. Daniel, now 27, was the most valuable player in the 2006 OHL playoffs for the Peterborough Petes, after being drafted in the third round by the Calgary Flames in 2005 (brother Michael was an eight-round pick by the Canadiens in 1998). He piled up over 300 points in four seasons in junior.
"He was perfect. Outgoing, always on the go,” Ryder said, describing his little brother as a youngster. “Then, all of a sudden things just changed. I don’t know what happened.”
Things seemed to go off the rails fairly quickly after that. Daniel Ryder missed the Flames' summer development camp and reported late for his first NHL training camp, for what were termed "personal issues." He lasted just six games with the Flames' minor-league affiliate in Quad City before he was suspended.
Two years later, he was on a tryout with the Bruins' farm team in Providence, when brother Michael was playing for Boston. That didn't last long, either. And six months later he ended up in court back home, being tried on charges of armed robbery of a convenience store. He ended up being found not guilty because of lack of evidence, even though he had originally turned himself into the RCMP.
Yahoo!'s Neate Sager blogged about it at the time.
That was four years ago. There was some media attention on it then, but Michael Ryder was not comfortable talking about it. This week, he opened up.
Since then, it's been a struggle for the family. Ryder tries to help when he's home in Newfoundland during the off-seasons, but the responsibiity falls upon their parents, as Daniel lives with them.
“He would hear voices telling him to do stuff. That’s tough. I talked to him, but he’s a pretty stubborn kid. You couldn’t really talk to him. He was going to do his own thing,” Ryder told NJ.com. “With his mental issues, you don’t really know what he was thinking. It’s tough. He’s been on so many different meds and nothing really seems to make him get past that.”
More frustrating is that no treatment has been found to be effective. Ryder said Daniel has been on many different medications, but there hasn't been any progress. He was withdrawn and uncommunicative four years ago when his legal troubles came to a head; he seems to be the same today.
““It’s tough because you have a brother but you don’t really have a brother. He has psychosis, OCD, anxiety, all of it. He’s on all different kinds of meds but nothing really seems to help," Ryder told NJ.com. "We’re hoping, but he still seems to be in the same boat. He doesn’t do anything. I don’t know if he still hears voices in his head or not. He probably still does, but he doesn’t express himself, so we don’t know. He doesn’t say anything.”
