{"id":47836,"date":"2018-06-15T14:40:55","date_gmt":"2018-06-15T18:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=47836"},"modified":"2025-09-30T10:19:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T14:19:22","slug":"carleton-grad-skates-into-pro-league","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/carleton-grad-skates-into-pro-league\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring Convocation 2018: Carleton Grad Skates into Pro Hockey League"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Spring Convocation 2018: Carleton Grad Skates into Pro Hockey League\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

At age three, most children have just learned to tackle a set of stairs. The skillset of three-year-old Ryan Van Stralen, who graduates this year with a BA in Psychology, was much different. At three, little Ryan was already lacing up his skates and gearing up to become the professional hockey player he is today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Stralen recalled spending many chilly winter nights as a child on his family\u2019s outdoor rink, cutting tight bladed lines into the snow-covered ice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never wanted to get off the rink . . . those are my earliest memories of learning to play and falling in love with the game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From the 67s to the Ravens<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After playing for three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) with the Ottawa 67s, Van Stralen decided to stay in the capital city by joining the Carleton Ravens men\u2019s team as a forward in 2014 while completing a degree in psychology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Stralen racked up 48 goals at Carleton in his four seasons with the Ravens, making him the fourth-highest scorer overall in team history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Stralen said a memory he\u2019ll never forget from his time at Carleton was making it to the playoffs in his second year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFour years goes by pretty fast . . . cherish every moment and take it all in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Living the Pro Hockey Dream<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Van Stralen made the leap to the pros late last year by joining the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) in the United States with the Wichita Thunder, based in Wichita, Kansas. By that time, he\u2019d already earned enough credits to graduate from Carleton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his first season with the Thunder, Van Stralen scored eight goals and made seven assists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Stralen admitted he\u2019s not exactly sure what\u2019s in his future, but knows it will involve hockey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the only thing I\u2019ve found that I\u2019m truly, truly passionate about [so] it needs to be something in the game,\u201d whether that be coaching or playing, \u201cI want to keep a foot in hockey,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At age three, most children have just learned to tackle a set of stairs. The skillset of three-year-old Ryan Van Stralen, who graduates this year with a BA in Psychology, was much different. At three, little Ryan was already lacing up his skates and gearing up to become the professional hockey player he is today. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":47837,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[18,25],"cu_story_tag":[1928],"class_list":["post-47836","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-athletics-recreation","cu_story_type-student-experience","cu_story_tag-athletics"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/47836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/47836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97863,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/47836\/revisions\/97863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=47836"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=47836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}