The Arizona Coyotes bid farewell to their desert home with a 5-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on April 17, closing the curtain on a 28-year run in Arizona before embarking on a new chapter of NHL hockey in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Despite the loss, at least one Edmonton player, center/wing Derek Ryan, was happy about the Coyotes’ move to Utah — for obvious and personal reasons.
He’s excited for Coyotes’ move because he knows people in the Beehive State are passionate sports fans and hockey will now be a more prevalent sport in Utah. He also has family living in the area.
But what Ryan is most thrilled about is the opportunity to play hockey in the state where his Latter-day Saint faith is the predominant religion.
“It will be awesome,” he told the Church News. “I’m happy that more members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be exposed to NHL hockey.”
Hockey, family and faith
Born and raised in Spokane, Washington, Ryan was raised on a foundation of Christian faith and belief in Jesus Christ and the Bible.
While playing for the Spokane Chiefs, a local junior hockey team, he met and began dating Bonnie Mckinlay, a Latter-day Saint.
Their relationship continued long distance as Ryan played college hockey and studied at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
He remembers taking a course in which he learned about different religions worldwide. One month of the class was learning about Christianity, including three or four days on the Church of Jesus Christ. It was his first official introduction to the Latter-day Saint faith, and during that time, Mckinlay suggested he meet with the missionaries if he wanted to learn more, which Ryan did for educational purposes.
The couple married during his last year in college, then it was off to Europe to play professional hockey with stints in Hungary, Austria and Sweden.
Each summer, the couple returned home from Europe and stayed with her family. Ryan noticed with interest as the family prayed together, studied their scriptures together and consistently attended worship services on Sundays.
“It had a profound effect on me,” he said in a video devotional in February 2021. “In hindsight, little seeds of…
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