Ryan thinks he can be productive player again for Senators

Bobby Ryan said he believes he can be a productive forward for the Ottawa Senators again after taking an extended leave of absence from the team in November to enter the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program.

"I'd like to be a consistent player for the rest of my career, I'd like to never have a drink again during hockey season, I'd love to just continue to be a top-six player," Ryan said Tuesday after being named as the Senators' nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, awarded annually by the Professional Hockey Writers Association to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to ice hockey. "I still think I have that in me.

"If it's with the Sens, I really just want to continue to watch the young kids get better and help them along the path to being a consistent playoff team, because all the pieces are there and they're going to continue to get there with all the drafting they've got coming forward. Play a little mentor for those guys and continue to find a way to be productive on the ice, those are some of the goals that I've kind of set, going back into March."

After admitting issues with alcohol abuse and entering the player assistance program, Ryan returned against the Nashville Predators on Feb. 25. The 33-year-old scored a hat trick two days later in the Senators' 5-2 win against the Vancouver Canucks.

Ryan scored eight points (five goals, three assists) in 24 games this season, which was paused on March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus. The Senators were one of seven teams whose season ended when the NHL Return to Play Plan was announced May 26. They had a .437 points percentage, which was 15th in the Eastern Conference.

"Right away after that game, I think one of my teammates just said, 'You just threw your hat into the ring for the Masterton,'" Ryan said. "I said, 'I guess that would be cool,' but obviously that's the furthest thing from my mind and the reason I had to go get right. To be recognized for the work I put in and the months leading up to my comeback, it's a very small thing but it's a very fulfilling thing for me."

Selected right behind Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby as the No. 2 pick of the 2005 NHL Draft by the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, Ryan has 555 points (254 goals, 301 assists) in 833 games and was a four-time 30-goal scorer with Anaheim before being traded to Ottawa on July 5, 2013. Ryan, who has two seasons remaining on the seven-year contract ($7.25 million average annual value) he signed with the Senators on Oct. 2, 2014, said he was grateful he was able to return during the most difficult season of his career.

"Probably right when I left was the hardest time, because I knew leaving, that -- obviously with the contract, there's that -- I may have played my last game in the NHL, and that was the hardest thing to swallow and to get over," Ryan said. "Then as I'm sitting there in December in California and watching games, bothering everyone else around me for the scores, checking on the Sens, I was watching some of the games and looking at the pace and things like that, thinking, 'I can't believe I'm taking 30 days off in November and December.'

"I doubted it then that I could get my body back to where I needed to be to play and I've got to thank the staff because not only did I do that, I was in the best shape of my life for the last month before I got into game speed, and I felt great about it. I did worry about it, but I had an incredible group around me."

Ryan is currently in Idaho with his wife and two children. He said he'll get his hockey gear this week and will skate with Tampa Bay Lightning forward Tyler Johnson, who's also in Idaho.

"Most mornings I'm up and at the gym at 6:30, which was never a thing before," Ryan said. "I've really found it cathartic for me to do that early and set my day up the right way. By 8:45, 9 o'clock, I'm home with the kids and playing dad. We've gotten into a nice rhythm right now, and I don't want to disrupt that. I'd like to stay put as long as I can and keep doing this."