Terrible blow to Bobby Ryan, who gets bought out by the Senators!

The month of September started off great for Ottawa Senators forward Bobby Ryan. He was named the 2019-20 recipient of the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy on Monday after publicly sharing his battle with alcohol issues. The award is given out annually to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to ice hockey.

And he will need perseverance moving forward seeing that on Friday, the Senators have placed him on unconditional waivers in order to buy him out. They informed him this morning before placing him on the wire. Buy outs have been in action since Friday morning; Ryan is the first one to get the cut. This seems to prove that the Senators plan on being active on the free agent market this offseason. 

The 33-year-old Ryan had struggled at the start of the season and then entered the NHL/NHL Players’ Assistance program on Nov. 20 to get help for alcohol addiction.

He returned to the ice Feb. 25 against the Nashville Predators, then scored three times in a 5-2 win over the visiting Vancouver Canucks in his second game back two nights later.

That hasn’t been enough to convince the Senators to give him on board. Ryan has played 833 career regular season games since being drafted No. 2 by the Anaheim Ducks in 2005. He has 254 goals and 555 points in 13 NHL seasons split between Anaheim and Ottawa. Ryan has two more years on his deal paying him $7.5 million per season in real cash at a $7.25-million cap hit.The buyout will save the Senators $3.67 million in each of the next two campaigns, but will also add a cap charge of $1.83 million in each of the following two years.

We are hoping he will sign elsewhere as his presence in a dressing room is a great plus for any team out there looking for great leadership and an example of determination and devotion. 

Prove ‘em wrong, Bobby!