Ray Emery

Ray Emery (September 28, 1982 – July 15, 2018), often nicknamed Razor or Sugar Ray, was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the National Hockey League for 11 years. He played for the Anaheim Ducks, Philadelphia Flyers, Ottawa Senators and Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL) and Atlant Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). He had been awarded multiple honors. Emery led the Ottawa Senators to the Stanley Cup finals in 2007, making it the Ottawa Senators first trip to the finals since 1927. They later lost to Anaheim Ducks.

Emery was chosen 99th overall by the Senators in the 2001 NHL entry draft. During the 2006–07 season, Emery signed a three-year deal with the Senators worth $9.5 million of starting goaltender for the Ottawa Senators in their run to the Stanley Cup Finals. However, on June 20, 2008, the Ottawa Senators waived Emery, and then bought out his contract after a string of off-ice incidents caused the organization to sour on him. On July 9, 2008, it was announced that Emery had signed a one-year, $2M contract with Atlant Mytishchi of the Russian KHL.

On June 10, 2009, the Philadelphia Flyers announced that Emery had signed a one-year deal for a reported $1.5 million. In March 2010, GM Paul Holmgren announced that Emery would be out for remainder of the season due to avascular necrosis and that a bone graft would be done to alleviate his hip issues. Doctors were able to catch the disease early on before it spread, and in April, the surgery was declared to be extremely successful. In July, Emery began the grueling and tedious workout and rehabilitation process.

On February 7, 2011, Emery signed a one year, two-way contract with the Anaheim Ducks and led the Ducks into the playoffs, finishing tied for fourth in the league and posting a 7–2–0 record with 2.28 goals-against average (GAA) and .926 save percentage (SV%) in 10 regular season NHL appearances.

In July 2011, it was announced that Emery would be attending the Chicago Blackhawks training camp on a tryout basis. On October 3, 2011, the Blackhawks announced they had signed Emery to a 1-year, $600,000 deal.

Early life
Emery was born the eldest of three brothers, Andrew and Nicholas, to Charlene and Paul Emery. He grew up on a century-old farmhouse in Cayuga, Ontario, where he attended high school and excelled in sports. He played many sports other than hockey, including golf, baseball, and soccer. In ice hockey, he originally played defence, but switched to goaltender at nine years old due to a shortage of goaltenders in his league. He was very competitive and was "his own worst critic". For some time before turning to professional hockey, Emery had an ambition to become an architect.

Pre-NHL
Emery decided to commit to hockey on the advice of his mother, and tried out unsuccessfully for eight different junior teams. He started his junior hockey career in 1998 in Junior C with the Dunnville Terriers of the OJHL. Despite winning three games out of 22 played, Emery was named Rookie of the Year.

Emery was drafted by OHL's Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in the 5th round of the 1999 OHL draft. Emery split the 1999–2000 season between the Welland Cougars of the OHA and the Greyhounds in the OHL. In 2000–2001 with the Greyhounds, Emery was involved in four on-ice fights. In 2001, Emery was drafted by the Ottawa Senators and subsequently enjoyed his most successful OHL season in 2001–2002.

In 2002–2003, Emery joined the Binghamton Senators of the AHL for his first professional season. He won 27 of 50 games and was named to the AHL's All-Rookie team. Emery was suspended twice for on-ice incidents the same season, and such behavior continued into the 2003–2004 season. He was suspended for three games for bumping a referee, and he was involved in an altercation with Denis Hamel of the Rochester Americans, when Hamel admittedly uttered a racial slur. Emery retaliated and was suspended for three games. Emery and Hamel later became teammates in Binghamton, and Hamel apologized for "for not thinking about what I was saying, in the heat of a game" The 2004–05 season would be his last in the AHL; coincidentally, that season was wiped out in the NHL due to a lockout.

Ottawa Senators (2005–2008)
Emery began his NHL career, in the 2005–06 season, by setting a record for wins to start a career. Emery won his first nine games, moving ahead of Bob Froese, who started the 1982–83 season with eight wins while playing for the Philadelphia Flyers. In March of the same season, Emery won 12 games, tying Bernie Parent's 1974 record for the most wins in a month.

At the beginning of the 2005–06 season, Emery had won nine straight games during the regular season, as the back-up for Dominik Hašek. When Hašek injured his groin during the 2006 Winter Olympics, Emery became the starting goalie. Mike Morrison became the backup, after he was picked up off waivers from the Edmonton Oilers. Emery would be the starting goaltender for the rest of the season, leading the Senators to the first Stanley Cup playoffs, where the Senators lost to Anaheim in five games.

After the 2005–06 season the Senators decided not to bring back Hašek, and they brought in Martin Gerber to compete with Emery for the starter position. Gerber was the starter at the beginning of the season, but due to his poor play, Emery replaced him in mid-November. On Saturday, February 10, 2007, Emery was suspended three games from the NHL for striking Montreal Canadiens forward Maxim Lapierre with his stick on his face, after Lapierre crashed into Emery's net.

Twelve days later, after his three-game suspension had ended, Emery was involved in a mêlée between the Senators and the Buffalo Sabres. He and Sabres goaltender Martin Biron left their creases to fight each other. After the first fight was finished, Sabres' enforcer Andrew Peters grabbed Emery and a second fight ensued. Both goaltenders received game misconducts, and Emery had the rare feat (for a goaltender) of receiving two five-minute majors for fighting in the same incident. In total, Emery received 22 penalty minutes (two five-minute majors for fighting, a two-minute minor for leaving the crease, and the 10-minute game misconduct) for this altercation. After the altercation, fans and media have dubbed him "Sugar Ray" in reference to retired boxer Sugar Ray Robinson and Emery's reputation as a fighter.

Prior to the 2007 playoffs, Emery and the Senators won 5–2 against the Montreal Canadiens on March 30, 2007, which was his 100th NHL game. Emery's strong play in the season continued on in the playoffs, as the Senators defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins, New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres each in five games en route to their first Stanley Cup Final appearance since the team returned to the NHL in 1992, where the Senators lost to the Anaheim Ducks in five games. He became a restricted free agent after the end of the season and filed for salary arbitration, but he agreed to a three-year deal with the Senators worth $9.5 million before the hearings were held.

By the pre-season of the 2007–08 campaign, Emery was injured for a lengthy time, due to a wrist injury which limited him to only 40 minutes of the pre-season and to miss several games early in the Senators' season. Unspectacular performances by Emery, combined with improved play by Martin Gerber during the first two months of the season, reduced Emery's playing time once he returned. As a result, Gerber was designated as the starting goaltender for the team. In December, Emery was involved in more controversy, as he was sent home by head coach John Paddock from a practice after claiming that he was feeling ill. It occurred one day after he slammed a stick at another practice expressing his frustration stemming for his reduced playing time this season. Emery later explained that he woke up late and missed the start of that practice. The issue briefly fueled trade rumors.

On January 28, 2008, Emery showed up late to another practice in Long Island, New York. Emery said that he mistakenly thought that the session was held at the New York Islanders arena, the Nassau Coliseum, but it was instead held at the Farmingdale Iceworks. There were also reports that Emery had spent the All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas but Paddock simply stated that he arrived in New York from the west. General manager Brian Murray admitted that he had tried to trade Emery, but there were no takers. Due to his recent tardiness, Emery was fined 1/187 of his salary per this year, which was $14,705.88, which was turned into a donation to CHEO. In addition, Emery was also involved in separate altercations with Brian McGrattan and Chris Neil during practice sessions. On April 18, 2008 Murray announced to the media in an end-of-season press conference that Emery would not return to the Senators for the 2008–09 season. On June 20, 2008, Emery was waived by the Ottawa Senators, and cleared them three days later; as a result, he became a free agent.

Mask controversy
On January 30, 2006, Emery was the target of many critics as a result of a design which was painted on his goalie mask. Emery, an avid boxing fan, wore a mask with a picture of Mike Tyson painted on it. The mask attracted controversy due to Tyson's reputation, notably his past rape conviction. After speaking to the Senators' management, Emery decided to not further wear the mask as they both felt it was inappropriate for hockey. He wore the Tyson mask for only one game, a 5–0 loss against the Boston Bruins. During the 2006 NHL playoffs, Emery wore a new mask featuring Canadian heavyweight boxer George Chuvalo. In the 2007–2008 season Emery's mask also featured Muhammad Ali. Emery finished the season off with Floyd Mayweather on his mask.

Atlant Moscow (2008–2009)
Emery signed a one-year, $2 million contract with Atlant Moscow Oblast of the new Kontinental Hockey League on July 9, 2008 after he was unsuccessful in obtaining an NHL contract. As a foreign goaltender, Emery was only allowed to play in 65% of his team's 56 regular season games due to rules that encourage the development of Russian netminders. He split duties for the season with former Colorado Avalanche goaltender Vitaly Kolesnik.

In February 2009, footage surfaced of Emery in a physical altercation with his team's trainer during a KHL game, after Emery had just been pulled after allowing three goals in the first period against Yaroslavl. Emery's agent, J.P. Barry, stated that the goalie did not like being "pestered" by the trainer to wear a sponsor's hat. After the following mid-season break, Emery failed to report back to the team due to a financial dispute. With the devaluation of the Russian ruble during the global financial crisis, Emery's salary was consequently devalued; he had wrongly assumed that his contracted salary would be price locked at the US dollar forex equivalent. Emery eventually returned to the team and finished out the remainder of the season.

Philadelphia Flyers (2009–2010)
On June 10, 2009, the Philadelphia Flyers announced that they had agreed to terms on a one-year contract worth $1.5 million dollars with Ray Emery. As the jersey number 1 is retired in Philadelphia in honor of Bernie Parent, he wore number 29. No explanation has been given for his choice. For his mask he has chosen real and fictional boxing figures local to Philadelphia. The left side of his mask shows Bernard Hopkins, the right side has Joe Frazier and the backplate is adorned by Sylvester Stallone as the character Rocky Balboa in the pose with the American flag from the theatrical poster of Rocky IV.

After a successful training camp he marked his return to the NHL with a 2–0 shutout victory against the Carolina Hurricanes in the first game of the season. In his second regular season game with the Flyers, against the New Jersey Devils, he stopped 24 of 26 shots, in a 5–2 victory.

Avascular necrosis
On December 8, Emery was placed on injured reserve to have surgery on a torn muscle in his abdomen. Originally expected to miss about six weeks, the prognosis changed when it was discovered that he had avascular necrosis. In March 2010, Flyers General Manager Paul Holmgren announced that Emery would be out for remainder of the season due to the diagnosis and that a bone graft would be done to alleviate his hip issues.

Doctors were able to catch the disease early on before it spread, unlike the case of baseball and American football player Bo Jackson. As a result, in April, doctors announced an extremely successful surgery. Jackson spoke out about Emery, speculating that they were the only two athletes to come back after the disease. Jackson added, "I take my hat off [to him]. I want him to know I am in his corner. It's a lot of hard work. To come back and play, it takes a very, very special and driven person. He's got a different makeup to want to do all the little things he needs to compete on a professional level." Unlike Jackson, who required numerous hip replacements, Emery had the benefit of advancements in modern medicine, undergoing a very specialized and complex procedure that involved removing 13-centimetres from his right fibula, and then grafting it to the femur to re-introduce a proper blood supply to the area. Holmgren said that while the surgery went better than expected, he did not know exactly how long Emery's recovery would take.

On July 1, Emery became an unrestricted free agent as his injury deemed him unable to play until he recuperates. In August, he was given the go ahead to begin the grueling and tedious workout and rehabilitation process. In November 2010, TSN visited Emery during an on-ice workout and were surprised to see him get down into the butterfly position and play for the first time since surgery. Emery stated that he did not "care if [he could] walk in 7 years", and he "just [wanted] to play." To the surprise of his doctors and trainers, Emery has been doing better than expected. In January 2011, Emery began skating with an OHL team, taking shots and training with Eric Lindros, working with personal trainer Matt Nichol and goalie coach Eli Wilson. According to Wilson, Emery was "as sharp and ready now as he was the summer before Ottawa's Stanley Cup final run."

In March 2011, Emery's injury and undefeated return to the NHL with the Anaheim Ducks garnered much media attention and fascination, with a special segment featured on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada. Remarkably, Emery currently has 13-centimetres of bone missing from his leg. This later garnered him a nomination for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.

Anaheim Ducks (2011)
On February 7, 2011, Emery signed a one year, two-way contract with the Anaheim Ducks, allowing him to the standard two-week conditioning AHL stint. Three other NHL teams showed interest in signing Emery. He was then assigned to the Syracuse Crunch to begin conditioning. Emery played three games for the Crunch, compiling a 2–1–0 record with a 2.62 goals-against-average and .925 save percentage. Emery eventually went on to play a total of five games for the Crunch in their 2010–11 season posting a 4–1–0, 1.98 GAA and .943 save percentage.

After playing 3 games with the Syracuse Crunch, on February 23, 2011, Emery was recalled to the Anaheim Ducks of the NHL. It was his first NHL appearance since he last played in March 2010 with the Flyers. Emery made his Anaheim Ducks debut on March 11, 2011 against the Phoenix Coyotes when he replaced goaltender Dan Ellis.

Emery received his first win as an Anaheim Duck in a 2–1 win against the St. Louis Blues. Emery then went on to six straight starts to open his Anaheim career, falling one shy of matching the Ducks record for consecutive wins by a goaltender, to Guy Hebert.

In the week of March 14, Emery was honored with NHL's Second Star of the Week after going 2–0–0 with a 0.99 GAA and .968 SV%

Emery led the Ducks into the playoffs, finishing tied for fourth in the league and posting a 7–2–0 record with 2.28 goals-against average (GAA) and .926 save percentage (SV%) in 10 regular season NHL appearances.

In April, Emery's remarkable comeback was recognized when the Anaheim chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association (PHWA) named Ray Emery as their nominee for the 2011 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy. The NHL nominated Emery for the Masterton making him one of three named as finalists.

Chicago Blackhawks (2011–2013)
On July 27th, 2011, Emery signed a tryout contract with the Chicago Blackhawks. He was signed to a 1-year contract for the 2011–12 NHL season on October 3, 2011. Emery made his Blackhawks debut ten days later with a 4–3 win over the Winnipeg Jets.

Return to Philadelphia (2013–2015)
On July 5, 2013, Emery signed a one-year deal with the Philadelphia Flyers worth $1.65 million to serve as the backup to starting goaltender Steve Mason. On July 1, 2014, he re-signed for another year in the same role for $1 million.

Personal life
In June 2010, Emery began dating Canadian singer Keshia Chante.

Emery has numerous tattoos, which include the initials of his parents, Charlene and Paul, and younger brothers Andrew and Nicholas. He has an African symbol for the number one (his jersey number with the Senators), and his nickname "Razor" written across his chest. He also has a tattoo representing his birth symbol, Libra. He has another tattoo on his right arm which reads, "Anger is a Gift." Emery stating positively of the tattoo, "If you're passionate enough about something, you'll [get mad enough] to do something about it."

Emery remains close to good friends and Ottawa Senator teammates, Jason Spezza, whom he was a groomsman at his wedding and Brian McGrattan.

Outside of ice hockey, Emery's style has garnered much interest with TSN broadcasting a feature about his wardrobe and taste in fashion, including hundreds of pairs of shoes, dozens of watches, diamond chains and well over $4,000 suits. He owns an orange Lamborghini and a limited edition white Hummer. Emery once owned a python named after a childhood friend.

Death
On July 15, 2018, Emery went swimming with several friends at the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club in Hamilton, Ontario. He went for a dive but did not resurface and his body was found later in the day. He was 35.

Regular season
 Statistics as of 2010-07-28 

Playoffs
 Statistics as of 2008-04-18 

Awards
{| class="wikitable" style="width:60%;" ! Award ! League/Organization ! Year }}
 * First All–Star Team
 * OHL
 * 2002
 * Goaltender of the Year
 * OHL
 * 2002
 * First All–Star Team
 * CHL
 * Goaltender of the Year
 * CHL
 * 2002
 * All–Rookie team
 * AHL
 * 2003
 * Goaltender of the Month (April)
 * AHL
 * 2005
 * Defensive Player of the Month (October)
 * NHL
 * 2006
 * Molson Cup season winner
 * Ottawa Senators
 * 2006–07
 * Defensive Player of the Month (October)
 * NHL
 * 2006
 * Molson Cup season winner
 * Ottawa Senators
 * 2006–07
 * Ottawa Senators
 * 2006–07