Ryan O ' Byrne Ryan David O ' Byrne ( born July 19 , 1984 ) is a Canadian professional ice hockey player currently playing for the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League ( NHL ) . Playing career . Amateur . O ' Byrne attended the private St . Michaels University School in British Columbia and played two season ' s of junior in the BCHL with the Victoria Salsa and Nanaimo Clippers . Instead of continuing a CHL career , O ' Byrne opted to play U . S . collegiate hockey and committed to Cornell University of New York . Prior to playing his freshman year with Cornell , Ryan was drafted in the third round , 79th overall , by the Montreal Canadiens in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft . Selected due to his large physical frame and potential as a shut - down defenseman , he played in 31 games with the Big Red contributing only 2 assists . Improving offensively with 3 goals and 10 points in his sophomore season of 2004 – 05 , O ' byrne helped Cornell regain the ECAC Championship with a 3 - 1 win over Harvard before losing in the West Regional Final to the University of Minnesota . In his junior year , O ' byrne entrenched himself as a top defender within Cornell ' s ECAC leading defense corps to be selected as a First Team All - Ivy player . Despite missing nearly a month to injury , O ' Byrne led all Big Red defenseman with 7 goals and 13 points in 28 games and was named in the ECAC Third - Team before losing in a rematch to Harvard in the ECAC Championship . O ' Byrne was selected by Cornell Coach Mike Schäfer as an alternate captain , but decided to forgo his senior year to begin his professional career signing a two - year entry level contract with the Montreal Canadiens on August 9 , 2006 . Professional . After attending his first Montreal training camp , he was assigned to American Hockey League affiliate , the Hamilton Bulldogs , for the 2006 – 07 season . As a stay - at - home defensive - defenseman , Ryan produced just 12 assists in 80 games with the Bulldogs , waiting until the playoffs to score his first professional goals . In scoring his first goal , an opening series clinching goal over the Rochester Americans , he helped the Bulldogs advance to the Conference Semi - finals . In the Championship finals he then produced his second game winning goal a game three win over the Hershey Bears en route to claiming the Calder Cup . In the following 2007 – 08 season , O ' Byrne resumed playing with Hamilton before he was later recalled to the Canadiens and made his NHL debut , recording two assists , in a 4 - 2 victory over the Boston Bruins on December 6 , 2007 . Ryan missed a month of the season after suffering a broken thumb , before returning to health and scoring his first NHL goal in a 6 - 4 defeat to the San Jose Sharks on March 4 , 2008 . He finished the season , while splitting time between Hamilton and Montreal , to finish with 33 games . O ' Byrne was then re - signed to a three - year contract with the Canadiens on July 16 , 2008 . He made the Canadiens opening night roster for the 2008 – 09 season , and was used as a reserve defenseman . With two stints in the AHL , O ' Byrne appeared in 37 games for five assists , however his season was highlighted and gained the most attention on November 24 , 2008 , when he unintentionally tied the score with an own goal in the last minutes of a game against the New York Islanders , in which the Canadiens would go on to lose 4 - 3 in overtime . In his second game of the 2009 – 10 campaign with the Canadiens , Ryan suffered a knee injury causing him to miss the next 20 games . Upon his return , O ' byrne established himself as a regular within the defense corps . On December 4 , 2009 , he changed his jersey number to 20 due to retiring of the number 3 in honour of Emile Bouchard for the Canadiens Centennial celebrations . Similar to Ray Bourque ' s homage to Phil Esposito in Boston , Ryan wore the number 20 jersey underneath his number 3 jersey and as a surprise , unveiled his new number during the banner hanging and presented Bouchard his jersey as a token of being the last to wear the number 3 for the Canadiens . O ' byrne finished his first full NHL season , appearing in a career high 55 games and 13 post - season games as the Canadiens reached the Eastern Conference finals . To begin the 2010 – 11 season , O ' Byrne was relegated as a depth defenceman on the Habs blueline . In the final year of his contract and unable to establish a position he was traded by the Canadiens to the Colorado Avalanche for forward prospect Michael Bournival on November 11 , 2010 . In his first game with the Avalanche , Ryan recorded a career high in ice time in a 5 - 1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on November 12 , 2010 . February 2008 arrest . On February 11 , 2008 , O ' Byrne and teammate Tom Kostopoulos were arrested with force outside a Tampa Bay , Florida nightclub following the team ' s rookie dinner for a purse - snatching incident . He was charged that night with grand theft after police found him with a woman ' s purse in one hand making a call with her cellphone in the other . Kostopoulos was charged with resisting the officers after he was told to back off while they were dealing with O ' Byrne . Both were eventually released on bail — O ' Byrne ' s was $ 2 , 000 , Kostopoulos ' was $ 500 . The charges against Kostopoulos were dropped a few weeks later , while those against O ' Byrne were dropped in July 2008 , after he apologized to the victim and conceded to do community service in Canada .