WINNIPEG -- Winnipeg Jets assistant general manager Craig Heisinger still gets emotional talking about former Vancouver Canucks forward Rick Rypien, nearly seven years after Rypien's death.
Speaking to 3,000 students from across Manitoba on Wednesday as a part of Jets Hockey Talks at the Project 11 Mental Wellness Summit. Heisinger told students Rypien would be proud of what has been done in his honor.
Introduced in 2013, Project 11 was formed to be a lasting legacy for Rypien, who wanted to start the cause but never got a chance to; fighting depression and mental illness, he committed suicide on Aug. 15, 2011.
"It was his goal to help people of all ages, but most importantly kids," Heisinger said. "One thing I have learned in the seven years since his passing is that mental health doesn't discriminate."
"He'd be laughing … up there knowing I was the one that had to stand up here and speak. We're here to deliver the message for him."
Project 11 is a preventative cross-curricular program that helps students in grades 5-8 develop positive mental health coping skills to deal with the stress of daily life, and aims to remove the stigma surrounding mental health.
Today, Project 11 reaches 11,500 students in 576 schools across Manitoba.
Heisinger discovered Rypien accidentally in 2004-05, when as general manager of Manitoba of the American Hockey League, the Canucks affiliate at the time, was scouting Regina of the Western Hockey League.
"I never met him until he was 19 years old," Heisinger said. "The Canucks asked me to go pay attention to a player in Regina, but it wasn't Rick. But every time I would leave, I would have pages of notes on this No. 11.
"After a while, Vancouver asked me what I thought of this player they wanted me to go and see. I said, 'Not very much, but I really like this No. 11, Rick Rypien.'"
Rypien had gone through the NHL Draft three times, but went undrafted each time. Heisinger said he believed what he saw in Rypien.
"Rick became my friend, purely by accident," Heisinger said. "I hired him to play hockey for the Manitoba Moose. I guess that's where the story begins and, to a certain degree, ends."
Rypien had 16 points (nine goals, seven assists) along with 226 penalty minutes in 119 NHL games, all with the Canucks.
Rypien signed a one-year contract with the Jets on July 4, 2011. He died on Aug. 15 of that same year.
Heisinger's message shared three key components with students on dealing with mental wellness and helping someone that has had the courage to reach out to another.
"Courage is the key word here," he said. "It takes a tremendous amount of courage to reach out and help and it takes a tremendous amount of courage to be willing to listen and help."
Heisinger told students their friends can be their support groups, noting that Rypien's support group included teammate and former NHL forward Mike Keane and Anaheim Ducks defenseman Kevin Bieksa.
"I encourage you to use the people around you," Heisinger said. "You 100 percent can't say the wrong thing. You can say you don't have time. That's really the only thing that you can say that's wrong."
Jets forwards Bryan Little and Nikolaj Ehlers took part in a roundtable discussion on mental wellness prior to Heisinger's speech.
"I think it's changed a lot," Little said of the stigma surrounding mental health. "When I was a kid, there wasn't even conversations about [mental wellness]. You were kind of taught to be tough and keep things inside.
"Now, it's good to have these conversations with kids that people are there and will be there for them and to not hold things in like that."
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