Michael Owen Guy Ridley (born July 8, 1963) is a retired professional

Professional

A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...

 ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 centre

Centre (ice hockey)

The centre in ice hockey is a forward position of a player whose primary zone of play is the middle of the ice, away from the side boards. Centres have more flexibility in their positioning and are expected to cover more ice surface than any other player...

 who played in the NHL

National Hockey League

The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

 for 12 seasons from 1985 until 1997.

Ridley signed with the New York Rangers

New York Rangers

The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the borough of Manhattan in New York, New York, USA. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the...

 as an undrafted free agent

Free agent

In professional sports, a free agent is a player whose contract with a team has expired and who is thus eligible to sign with another club or franchise....

 in September 1985. Ridley played 866 career games, scoring 292 goals and 466 assists for 758 points. His best offensive season was the 1988–89 season, when playing with the Washington Capitals

Washington Capitals

The Washington Capitals are a professional ice hockey team based in Washington, D.C. They are members of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Since their founding in 1974, "The Caps" have won one conference championship to reach the 1998 Stanley Cup...

, he scored 41 goals and 89 points, both career highs.

He is known for scoring the first goal in General Motors Place

General Motors Place

Rogers Arena Rogers Arena Rogers Arena (nicknamed "The Phone Booth" and "The Cable Box" and also "The Garage" (when it was called GM Place) is an indoor sports arena located at 800 Griffiths Way in the downtown area of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada...

, the home of the Vancouver Canucks.

Career statistics

				Regular season						Playoffs
Season Season (sports) In an organized sports league, a season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session. For example, in Major League Baseball, one season lasts approximately from April 1 through October 1; in Association football, it is generally from August until May In an...	Team	League		GP	G Goal (ice hockey) In ice hockey, a goal is scored when the puck completely crosses the goal line between the two goal posts and below the goal crossbar. A goal awards one point to the team attacking the goal scored upon, regardless of which team the player who actually deflected the puck into the goal belongs to...	A Assist (ice hockey) In ice hockey, an assist is attributed to up to two players of the scoring team who shot, passed or deflected the puck towards the scoring teammate, or touched it in any other way which enabled the goal, meaning that they were "assisting" in the goal. There can be a maximum of two assists per goal...	Pts Point (ice hockey) Point in ice hockey has three official meanings:* A point is awarded to a player for each goal scored or assist earned. The total number of goals plus assists equals total points. In some European leagues, a goal counts as two points, and an assist counts as one...	PIM Penalty (ice hockey) A penalty in ice hockey is a punishment for inappropriate behavior. Most penalties are enforced by detaining the offending player within a penalty box for a set number of minutes, during which, the player can not participate in play. The offending team usually may not replace the player on the ice,...		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1980–81	St. Boniface Saints	MJHL		9	2	1	3	2		—	—	—	—	—
1981–82	St. Boniface Saints	MJHL		48	37	32	69	48		—	—	—	—	—
1982–83	St. Boniface Saints	MJHL		48	91	100	191	49		—	—	—	—	—
1983–84	University of Manitoba University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...	GPAC		46	39	41	80	—		—	—	—	—	—
1984–85	University of Manitoba	GPAC		23	23	36	59	40		7	6	2	8	38
1985–86	New York Rangers New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the borough of Manhattan in New York, New York, USA. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the...	NHL		80	22	43	65	69		16	6	8	14	26
1986–87	New York Rangers	NHL		38	16	20	36	20		—	—	—	—	—
1986–87	Washington Capitals Washington Capitals The Washington Capitals are a professional ice hockey team based in Washington, D.C. They are members of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Since their founding in 1974, "The Caps" have won one conference championship to reach the 1998 Stanley Cup...	NHL		40	15	19	34	20		7	2	1	3	6
1987–88	Washington Capitals	NHL		70	28	31	59	22		14	6	5	11	10
1988–89	Washington Capitals	NHL		80	41	48	89	49		6	0	5	5	2
1989–90	Washington Capitals	NHL		74	30	43	73	27		14	3	4	7	8
1990–91	Washington Capitals	NHL		79	23	48	71	26		11	3	4	7	8
1991–92	Washington Capitals	NHL		80	29	40	69	38		7	0	11	11	0
1992–93	Washington Capitals	NHL		84	26	56	82	44		6	1	5	6	0
1993–94	Washington Capitals	NHL		81	26	44	70	24		11	4	6	10	6
1994–95	Toronto Maple Leafs Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...	NHL		48	10	27	37	14		7	3	1	4	2
1995–96	Vancouver Canucks Vancouver Canucks The Vancouver Canucks are a professional ice hockey team based in Vancouver, :British Columbia, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . The Canucks play their home games at Rogers Arena, formerly known as General Motors Place,...	NHL		37	6	15	21	29		5	0	0	0	2
1996–97	Vancouver Canucks	NHL		75	20	32	52	42		—	—	—	—	—
1997–98	Manitoba Moose Manitoba Moose The Manitoba Moose were a Canadian professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba that played in the International Hockey League from 1996 to 2001 and American Hockey League from 2001 to 2011. The team moved to St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador in 2011 to become the St...	IHL		4	2	2	4	0		—	—	—	—	—
NHL totals				866	292	466	758	424		104	28	50	78	70

Awards and achievements

• MJHL First All-Star Team (1983)
• MJHL Scoring Champion (1983)
• MJHL Goal Scoring Leader (1983)
• GPAC
  Great Plains Athletic Conference
  The Great Plains Athletic Conference is a college athletic conference affiliated with the NAIA. Member institutions are located in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota...
  
   First All-Star Team (1984 and 1985)
• GPAC MVP (1984)
• CIAU
  CIAU
  The letters CIAU may mean any of the following:* CIAU-FM 103.1, a radio station in Radisson, Quebec* An acronym for "Canadian Interuniversity Athletics Union", now known as Canadian Interuniversity Sport...
  
   All-Canadian (1984 and 1985)
• Canadian University Player of the Year (1984)
• NHL All-Rookie Team
  NHL All-Rookie Team
  The NHL All-Rookie Team is chosen by the Professional Hockey Writers' Association from the best rookies in the National Hockey League at each position for the season just concluded based on their performance in that year...
  
   (1986)
• Played in NHL All-Star Game (1989)
• “Honoured Member” of the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame
  Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame
  The Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame and Museum was established in 1985 when the first honoured members were named and plaques were erected in their honour. The first group of inductees was large in order to recognize the accomplishments of Manitoba players, coaches, builders and teams at the...
  
  

External links

• Mike Ridley's biography at Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame