47-Year-Old ‘Shoresy’ Star Terry Ryan Dropped The Gloves In His First Pro Hockey Game In 20 Years

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If you’re a hockey fan, you owe it to yourself to watch Shoresy, which is a surprisingly heartwarming look at the lives of guys who spend years grinding at the lower levels of the sport. Now, life has imitated art courtesy of an actor on the show who recently got the chance to revive his pro career after more than 20 years.

I don’t think I’ve seen any movies or television shows that manage to capture the essence of hockey culture quite like Shoresy, which chronicles the trials and tribulations of the ragtag group of misfits who play for the Sudbury Bulldogs of the Northern Ontario Senior Hockey Organization.

The show’s eponymous character is played by Jared Keeso (who also created Letterkenny), an Ontario native who spent time with a couple of junior teams when he was growing up. That means he’s fairly well-versed in the world the show explores—as is the case with plenty of his co-stars, including a few guys who can say they played in the NHL.

The crew boasts Brandon and Jordan Nolan (who comprise two-thirds of the trio known as “The Jims”) as well as Terry Ryan, who plays the Newfoundlander known as “Hitch.”  He was selected by the Montreal Canadiens with the eighth overall pick in the entry draft in 1995, but he would ultimately play just eight games in the NHL before his time in the league came to an end around the turn of the millennium.

Ryan spent a few years playing for various minor league clubs before resigning himself to the Canadian senior leagues Shoresy is based on (in addition to pivoting to ball hockey). It seemed like a forgone conclusion his pro career had come to an end, but things took a very interesting turn when he celebrated his 47th birthday over the weekend.

On Sunday, Ryan stepped back out onto an ECHL rink for the first time in over 20 years as a member of the Newfoundland Growlers, who had their roster decimated by a flu outbreak and reached out to the winger to add a healthy body to the bench.

Ryan said he was five or six beers deep during a premature birthday celebration on Saturday night when he received the call and promptly went home to drink a bunch of water and try to get some sleep. While he didn’t show up on the scoresheet, he did spend some time in the penalty box after getting into a fight in his team’s 6-2 loss to the Adirondack Thunder.

What a world.