Ryan Lin is a right-handed D-man who grew up in Richmond playing his minor hockey at Richmond’s Minoru Arena who is projected as a first-round selection after two outstanding seasons with the G-men finishing the season as the Giants Captain.
Ryan Lin born April 18/2008, in Richmond Introduced to hockey through Richmond’s minor hockey system, where he developed his skating and puck-moving skills from a young age.
If you talk with any Scouts either pro or amateur they’ll tell you he’s known in part for his hockey IQ, vision and hockey ability to focus on play making than on size or physical play considering he’s not one of the bigger players.
He played at the Delta Hockey Academy and was closely watched and scouted by the Giants in the 2023 WHL Prospects Draft and selected 6th overall in the first round listing him as one of the top D-men in Western Canada.
He did make a short-lived WHL debut in the 2023-24 season eventually signing as a full-time player the next season.
His rookie season in 2024-25 saw him play 60 game managing 5 goals, 48 assists, 53 points ranking him as the second WHL D-man 16 or younger to surpass 50 points getting named to the CHL All-Rookie Team as well as a Western Conference finalist for WHL Rookie of the Year.
The 2025-26 season saw him dress in 53 games managing 14 goals 43 assists for a total of57 points becoming the Giant’s leading scorer, their # 1 D-man while running the PP on the back end while growing into one of the WHL’s back-end blueliners.
In International play he represented Canada recently at Canada’s U17, Canada’s U18 event, the Hlinka Gretzky Cup as well as the IIHF Under-18 World Championship.
Earlier this year we caught up with him at one of the Richmond Sockeyes games watching hi Brother Teo play it was noted that heading into this year’s 2026 NHL Draft he was ranked 16th among North American skaters that had him possibly going as high as a mid-first-round selection – namely the 12th and 20th pick.
Various players possess a different skill-set with him known as one of the best puck-moving D-men in this year’s draft known for his Elite skating, hockey IQ, passing and PP skills while understanding how to easily transfer the play.
Depending on who you ask, one downfall might be that he needs to add additional strength for defending against larger NHL forwards on both ends of the ice.
It’s expected he will suit up next season at the U of Denver prior to making the jump to the pro’s.
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