Hockey night in Canada Kevin Bieska opens about passing of teammate Rick Rypien

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Ryan Hall
October 28, 2024 (9:45 PM)

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Former Vancouver Canucks defenseman and Hockey Night in Canada analyst Kevin Bieksa opened up recently on the latest episode of the Down to Irf Podcast about the suicide of his former teammate Rick Rypien.

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Rypien, who was undrafted played for the Vancouver Canucks for five seasons. During his time with the organization players noticed that his demeanor changed, and he became depressed to which he confided with Bieksa about his issues. Bieksa helped him as much as he could including having him live with his family as he worked through his troubles.

After his time with the Canucks had past, he signed with the Winnipeg Jets but it was too little too late where a family member found him passed away in his home on August 15th 2011. Since his death, Bieksa has been an advocate for mental health for athletes as many struggle with depression, addiction and other forms of trauma including CTE that could lead to terrible decisions.

Bieksa enjoyed his NHL career which spanned from 2005 through 2018 where he played the bulk of his career with the Canucks. He to was hurt with injuries especially near the end of his career which led to his early retirement from the NHL.

Several other players in the NHL over the years have committed suicide including Wade Belak, Konstantin Koltsov, Chris Simon and Greg Johnson to name a few. It's important that the players and the NHL continued to work together to try to solve this crisis as many athletes continued to fall victim to depression and have suicidal thoughts.

It's people like Bieksa who are advocates for the push of mental health had to help improve players willingness to come forward and discuss ways to save themselves from the anguish.