Paul D. Ranger (born September 12, 1984) 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 ...

former

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

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 ...

defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the latter a reference to ...

who is currently an assistant coach with the UOIT Ridgebacks. He has spent the majority of his professional career with the

Tampa Bay Lightning The Tampa Bay Lightning (colloquially known as the Bolts) are a professional ice hockey team based in Tampa, Florida. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. They play th ...

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 ...

before leaving the sport at the professional level for almost three years due to severe depression. Ranger returned to professional hockey at the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 season, every team in the le ...

with the

Toronto Marlies The Toronto Marlies are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They compete in the American Hockey League (AHL) as a member of the North Division of the Eastern Conference. The Marlies is owned by Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment, a c ...

during the 2012–13 season, and subsequently signed a one-year contract with the

Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Div ...

on July 24, 2013, to return to the NHL.

Playing career

Ranger played his junior career with the Oshawa Generals of the

OHL OHL or Ohl may refer to: Initialisms *Latvian Hockey Higher League, known in Latvian as the ''Optibet hokeja līga'' *Oberste Heeresleitung, the Supreme Army Command of Germany in World War I *Obrascón Huarte Lain, a Spanish construction company * ...

. After being drafted by the

183rd overall in 2002, he played two more seasons with the Generals before signing with the Springfield Falcons of the AHL for the 2004–05 NHL lockout. After the lockout, he played 76 games with the Lightning, scoring 18 points. In October 2009, Ranger approached Lightning team personnel before practice and requested a leave of absence without pay, which the team agreed to. During his time away from professional hockey, he attended the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottaw ...

and helped coached bantam hockey in his hometown, with help from David Branch, commissioner of 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 ...

. On August 21, 2012, after almost three seasons removed from competitive hockey, Ranger signed a minor league deal with the

of the

. His agent approached the team to inquire about his return to the NHL. Even after his return, Ranger has declined to talk about the specific details about why he chose to return to professional hockey. After a successful return to professional hockey with the Marlies, Ranger signed with the

for the 2013–14 season. On July 15, 2014, after a single season with the Maple Leafs, Ranger opted to continue his career abroad, signing a two-year contract to help solidify the defense of

Genève-Servette HC The Genève-Servette HC (also called Servette or GSHC) is a professional ice hockey club based in Geneva, Switzerland and competing in the National League (NL), the top tier of the Swiss hockey league system. The team plays their home games at the ...

in the Swiss NLA. He played only 23 games in his first season with Geneva and was a healthy scratch for most of the 2014/15 season. He was released at the end of the season. He would join the

Kloten Flyers EHC Kloten is an ice hockey team based in the city of Kloten in Switzerland. The team plays in the National League (NL). It has one of the best youth systems in Swiss ice hockey as its youth teams have won 19 championships during the last 50 year ...

for four games. In 2018, he was the subject of "The Mystery of Paul Ranger", a documentary feature on TSN. The segment's creators, Matt Dorman, Darren Dreger, James Judges, Nigel Akam, Kevin Fallis and Darren Oliver, received a

Canadian Screen Award The Canadian Screen Awards (french: link=no, Les prix Écrans canadiens) are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media ( web series ...

nomination for Best Sports Feature Segment at the

7th Canadian Screen Awards The 7th annual Canadian Screen Awards were held on March 31, 2019, to honour achievements in Canadian film, television, and digital media production in 2018.

."Matt Dorman, Darren Dreger, James Judges, Nigel Akam, Kevin Fallis, Darren Oliver: 2019 Best Sports Feature Segment"

Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television is a Canadian non-profit organization created in 1979 to recognize the achievements of the over 4,000 Canadian cinema of Canada, film industry and television in Canada, television industry professionals ...

, February 7, 2019.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ranger, Paul 1984 births Living people Canadian ice hockey defencemen Genève-Servette HC players Ice hockey people from Ontario EHC Kloten players Oshawa Generals players Springfield Falcons players Sportspeople from Whitby, Ontario Tampa Bay Lightning draft picks Tampa Bay Lightning players Toronto Maple Leafs players Toronto Marlies players Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in Switzerland