RAILERS

Railers: Ryan Lannon, who grew up in Grafton, halts retirement for another pro shot

Bill Ballou
Telegram & Gazette
Ryan Lannon runs drills during a recent Worcester Railers practice at the Worcester Ice Center.. [T&G Staff/Rick Cinclair]

WORCESTER — When Jamie Russell first heard that Ryan Lannon was interested in making a return to pro hockey, he said to himself, “I’m not so sure about this.”

It wasn’t a matter of talent. Lannon was a great player at Harvard and an excellent AHL defenseman who had been called up to the Pittsburgh Penguins but never got into a game. It was just that, well, the Grafton native had retired from pro hockey.

Like, really, really retired. Like AARP retired. Like, buying an RV and spending summers in the sunshine of Cape Cod and winters in the sunshine of California. All that was missing were the Early Bird Specials at Denny’s.

That kind of retired.

But Russell knew Lannon’s résumé. He had coached against the defenseman in college and knew he had been held in high regard at whatever stop he made in the pro ranks, so he gave him a call, bought him some lunch and eventually signed him to a Railers contract.

“I told him that this was going to go one of two ways,” the Railers GM-coach said Wednesday at Railers training camp. “Either this is going to be a great fit for both you and our organization, or right away it’s going to be readily apparent that this is not gonna work.

“So far, we’ve been pleasantly surprised by what we’ve seen.”

Lannon, 34, played pro hockey, in the AHL and in Europe, from 2005-06 through 2012-13. He was a reliable, durable, don’t-mess-up defenseman, just the kind of veteran blue-line presence that a team like the Railers — with four rookies back there — might need.

Which is why Russell was intrigued by the idea.

But four years off?

“I didn’t make the decision to give it a try until, oh, the end of August or beginning of September,” Lannon said. “I didn’t tell many people about it because I knew it was crazy. I had such a long time off, I wasn’t sure there’d be any interest at all.”

Lannon had retired because he did not enjoy the game as much as he once did.

“I just needed a break,” he said. “I left hockey on my own terms and I was comfortable with it. The first year — I didn’t miss it at all. Nonetheless, I found myself being drawn back into the sport with an opportunity to coach and see different places. As I started to spend time at the rink again, I began to enjoy the culture of hockey.”

Lannon did not just drive coast to coast in retirement. He went to Austria and played and coached there. He spent last winter in Hong Kong in a local youth hockey program there, coaching the Hong Kong Typhoons. Lannon also got back on skates. Oh, and he ran the Boston Marathon twice, but not on skates.

“I played in some men’s leagues,” he said, “and that’s part of the reason I had the confidence to come back. As a hockey player, I was always hard on myself. …I never saw myself as a good hockey player.

“Then you retire and play hockey against guys who didn’t play pro and say to yourself, ‘Oh, you know, I’m pretty good at this.' ”

The Railers know that signing Lannon was an unorthodox move, but the team can carry two extra players for the first month of the season, and Russell does not plan on making this a one-and-done experiment if it takes some time for Lannon to regain his form.

And it may.

“I’ve been skating in leagues where I was the fastest guy on the ice,” he said, “and now I’m probably the slowest guy on the ice. At least for the first few days, it’s an adjustment. Could I do it? I think so. It’s like riding a bike. It doesn’t go away. I know the game well enough, but it might take me a few weeks.

“Do they have the time, or the need, and do they want to wait for that to happen — who knows? I understand they’re not looking to develop me as a prospect, I’m here to help other guys, so we’ll see what happens. The worst-case scenario is that they decide I’m too old and too slow, but that’s probably what everybody thinks.”

Coming back to play effectively after this much time off would be unusual, but not unprecedented, at least in hockey. Hall of Famer Ted Lindsay played 16 years in the NHL from 1944-45 through 1959-60, then retired for three years. He came back for one more season with the Red Wings and after going 7-19-26 in 1959-60, was 14-14-28 with 173 penalty minutes in '64-65.

While Lannon grew up in Grafton, his hockey career took him far from home. He did play four games for the Worcester Sharks in 2010-11, then went off to play in Europe. He is back home, at least for a while, and is reconnecting with his roots as well as his hockey career.

“Yesterday,” he said, “I drove down to Grafton just to go the post office.”

In the days and weeks ahead, Lannon will find out just how permanent this homecoming is.

—Contact Bill Ballou at william.ballou@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillBallouTG.