MONTREAL-K.C. Ryan knows something about iconic teams.
He played football as a linebacker at Notre Dame alongside Joe Montana and proudly wears a gold 1977 national championship ring. The ring includes a small green emerald, emblematic of the famous decision by Irish coach Dan Devine to secretly outfit his squad in green jerseys before a home game against archrival Southern Cal.
One of Ryan's sons went to three Rose Bowls as a kicker/punter with the University of Michigan Wolverines. Yesterday, another son, Kenny, became property of one of hockey's most famous franchises, the Maple Leafs, in the second round of the NHL draft.
"All Kenny said to me before this draft was, `I hope I play in Canada,'" said the Ryan family patriarch yesterday. "Of all my boys, he was the one who wanted to play hockey ever since I started building a rink in our backyard when he was 3. Hockey was his passion, and it's what he wants to do.
"He wants to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs."
The young right winger, part of the U.S. developmental program in Ann Arbor, Mich., was part of the flood of exclusively North American talent harvested from the 2009 draft over the past two days by Leaf GM Brian Burke. Burke, who curiously enough said this draft would be remembered most for the rebirth of serious interest in Swedish hockey prospects, viewed the six players he selected yesterday - two Toronto-born prospects and four Americans - as a statement of intent about where he plans to take the Leaf franchise.
"It wasn't an accident," said Burke, who grabbed London-born centre Nazem Kadri with the club's first-round pick. "European players are important in our league. But the mix has to be right too. To play the way we're going to play, you need pick and shovel men."
That may allow the team's chief scout, Thommie Bergman, to take a few extended vacations in the next few years. The linebacker-like Ryan, meanwhile, will be a leading candidate to be one of those "pick and shovel men" in a few years.
Before that, however, he'll be part of the intensifying tug-of-war between the CHL and U.S. colleges for top-end American talent. As of now, Ryan is committed to attend Boston College next season. But the OHL's Windsor Spitfires own his rights and there appears to be a growing possibility the Spits might be able to lure Ryan away.
Windsor GM Warren Rychel successfully convinced another top U.S. prospect, defenceman Cam Fowler, to forego a full scholarship at Notre Dame to join the Memorial Cup champs in the fall.
"Our mindset right now is that Kenny is going to Boston College," said K.C. Ryan. "We're talking about a scholarship worth about $220,000 U.S. But we've been talking to (Rychel)."
Changes in OHL education plan rules in the past year have allowed teams like Windsor to more aggressively court U.S. players.
"Right now I plan on attending Boston College," said Kenny Ryan. "But we've always kept in touch with Windsor."
Along with Kadri and Ryan, the Leafs took Toronto-born defenceman Jesse Blacker, also a Windsor junior, along with GTHL-trained, 6-foot-5 centre Jamie Devane (Plymouth), RPI-bound centre Jerry D'Amigo from Birmingham, N.Y., and 6-foot-6 Philadelphia Jr. Flyers defenceman Eric Knodel.
Finally, on the same day the sons of former NHLers Ulf Samuelsson and Ray Ferraro and the grandson of the great Andy Bathgate were drafted, the Leafs used their final selection to snare 6-foot-5 Peterborough Petes defenceman Barron Smith, the Illinois-born son of former NHL rearguard Steve Smith.
"Hopefully he won't share the penchant for shooting the puck into his own net," said Burke, with a playful poke at Steve Smith's infamous error while playing for Edmonton in the 1986 playoffs.
"But this shows our commitment to size and toughness," said Burke. "We're not just talking the talk."
Bigger, meaner and more North American. The course has been set.
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