Brett Ritchie (born July 1, 1993) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

who is currently playing for the

Calgary Flames The Calgary Flames are a professional ice hockey team based in Calgary. The Flames compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference, and ...

of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL). He was selected by the

Dallas Stars The Dallas Stars are a professional ice hockey team based in Dallas. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference, and were founded during the 1967 NHL expansion as the Minne ...

, 44th overall, in the

2011 NHL Entry Draft The 2011 NHL Entry Draft was the 49th NHL Entry Draft. It was held on June 24–25, 2011, at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It was the first time the Draft was held in the state of Minnesota since the Minnesota North Stars host ...

Playing career

Ritchie attended

The Hill Academy The Hill Academy is an independent school in Ontario, Canada, for student athletes in Grades 5 -12/PG with a focus on hockey, lacrosse and golf. It is co-ed, and serves grades 5-12. History The Hill Academy was founded in 2006 by the Merrill fami ...

Junior

In 2009–10 Ritchie scored 13 goals and 16 assists in 65 games for the

Sarnia Sting Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes where Lake Huron fl ...

during his first season in the

Ontario Hockey League The Ontario Hockey League (OHL; french: Ligue de hockey de l'Ontario (LHO)) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues which constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The league is for players aged 16–19. There are exceptions for overa ...

(OHL). During his second season he missed approximately a month of the season due to

mononucleosis Infectious mononucleosis (IM, mono), also known as glandular fever, is an infection usually caused by the Epstein–Barr virus (EBV). Most people are infected by the virus as children, when the disease produces few or no symptoms. In young adult ...

, but despite playing just 49 games, his scoring improved to 21 goals and 20 assists during the 2010–11 season. Unfortunately, due to his illness during the mid-season, Ritchie missed his opportunity to play in the 2011

CHL Top Prospects Game The CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game is an annual event in which forty of the top NHL Entry Draft eligible prospects in the Canadian Hockey League play against each other in an all-star game environment. Players are able to boost their draft ranking w ...

Brett Ritchie (March 13, 2015) (16619522427)

On January 5, 2012 Ritchie was traded to the Niagara Icedogs for Guelph's 2012 2nd round pick, Peterborough's 2014 2nd round pick, and Niagara's own 2013 2nd and 5th round picks – all of which Sarnia immediately traded to Mississauga to acquire goalie JP Anderson.

Professional

On July 11, 2012, Ritchie signed a three-year entry-level contract with the

. Ritchie began his professional career April 5, 2013 with the

Texas Stars The Texas Stars are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL) based in Cedar Park, Texas, near Austin, with home games at the H-E-B Center. They are owned by the National Hockey League's (NHL) Dallas Stars and are the ...

against the

Oklahoma City Barons The Oklahoma City Barons were a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL). The team's first season was 2010–11. They played their home games at the Cox Convention Center, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. History On February 9 ...

, where he scored his first professional goal. Ritchie achieved a hat trick after scoring his third goal of the night on an empty net in the Stars' game against the Charlotte Checkers on December 27, 2014. After seven seasons within the Stars organization, on June 25, 2019, Ritchie was not tendered a qualifying offer enabling him to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Marking his 26th birthday on the opening day of free agency, Ritchie was signed to a one-year, $1 million contract with the Boston Bruins. In Ritchie's first game with the Bruins, he scored the first goal of the 2019–20 season against his former team, the Dallas Stars. As a free agent from the Bruins, Ritchie was left unsigned entering training camp to the delayed

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season. On January 9, 2021, Ritchie was invited to join the Calgary Flames training camp on a professional tryout basis. Remaining with the club through the start of the season, Ritchie was later signed to a one-year, two-way contract with the Calgary Flames on January 17, 2021. After concluding his second season with the Flames, Ritchie was left to explore free agency before re-signing with the Flames approaching training camp to a one-year, $750,000 contract on September 22, 2022.

Early life

Ritchie was born on July 1, 1993, in Orangeville, Ontario, Canada to parents Paul and Tammy. Ritchie comes from an athletic family with both his parents and younger brother engaging in various sports throughout their lifetime. His mother was a three-sport athlete while attending

Brock University Brock University is a public research university in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. It is the only university in Canada in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, at the centre of Canada's Niagara Peninsula on the Niagara Escarpment. The university bears t ...

and his father played in the

. Before his brother

Nick Nick may refer to: * Nick (given name) * A cricket term for a slight deviation of the ball off the edge of the bat * British slang for being arrested * British slang for a police station * British slang for stealing * Short for nickname Place ...

was drafted in the

2014 NHL Entry Draft The 2014 NHL Entry Draft was the 52nd NHL Entry Draft. The draft was held on June 27–28, 2014 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The top three selections were Aaron Ekblad, Sam Reinhart and Leon Draisaitl, going to the F ...

, they competed in lacrosse together. Brett's younger brother,

Nick Ritchie Nicholas Ritchie (born December 5, 1995) is a Canadian professional ice hockey forward who is currently playing for the Arizona Coyotes of the National Hockey League (NHL). Ritchie was selected by the Anaheim Ducks in the first round, tenth ov ...

, plays in the NHL for the

Arizona Coyotes The Arizona Coyotes are a professional ice hockey team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Coyotes compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference and currently play at the Mul ...

. Nick was drafted 10th overall by the Anaheim Ducks at the

NHL Entry Draft The NHL Entry Draft (french: Repêchage d'entrée dans la LNH) is an annual meeting in which every franchise of the National Hockey League (NHL) systematically select the rights to available ice hockey players who meet draft eligibility requirem ...

. During the 2012–13 season, Ritchie played with Team Canada to win gold medals at both the

2012 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament The 2012 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament was an under-18 ice hockey tournament held in Břeclav, Czech Republic, and Piešťany, Slovakia, on August 13–18, 2012. As in the previous two years, the venues were Alcaplast Arena in Břeclav and Pat ...

and the

2013 IIHF World U18 Championships The 2013 IIHF U18 World Championship was the 15th IIHF World U18 Championship and was hosted in Sochi, Russia. This was also a test event for the facilities to be used in the 2014 Winter Olympics. It began on 18 April 2013 with the gold medal ga ...

. Brett cheated on Jamie Andries.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Awards and honours

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ritchie, Brett 1993 births Living people Boston Bruins players Calgary Flames players Canadian ice hockey right wingers Dallas Stars draft picks Dallas Stars players Ice hockey people from Ontario Niagara IceDogs players People from Orangeville, Ontario Providence Bruins players Sarnia Sting players Texas Stars players