After Hockey Player's Death, Girlfriend Found Engagement Ring

Family friends say Adam Johnson bought it before flying to England from Minnesota
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 17, 2023 3:10 PM CST
After Hockey Player's Death, Girlfriend Found Engagement Ring
Fans look at floral tributes outside the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham, England, Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023.   (Zac Goodwin/PA via AP)

Friends of Adam Johnson's family say the hockey player's girlfriend made a heartbreaking find after he was fatally injured during a game in England last month. The family friends tell USA Today that Ryan Wolfe, the 29-year-old player's girlfriend of three years, found an engagement ring in the apartment they shared after relatives told her he had planned to propose and bought a ring before they flew to England from Minnesota. "I'm sure she had an inkling," says Scott Pionk, whose son played college hockey with Johnson. Pionk says Johnson's grandmother told him the player showed her the ring and said he planned to propose to Wolfe.

During a memorial service for Johnson in his hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota, the 24-year-old Wolfe read out a letter that she said was similar to what she would have written for their wedding day. "To me, you were everything. You were my home, my best friend, my sounding board, my rock, my safe haven and the love of my life," she said, per Fox News. "I'm never going to stop thinking about you, missing you and loving you until we can be together again." She spoke of his dreams of starting a farm or a coffee shop—or being a stay-at-home dad "with a whole vanful of kids."

Johnson, who played 13 games for the Pittsburgh Penguins, was playing for the Nottingham Panthers in England's Elite Hockey League when his neck was cut by an opposing player's skate blade during an Oct. 28 game in Sheffield. Earlier this week, police in South Yorkshire said a man had been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter. Police said the man was released on bail Wednesday pending further inquiries, the AP reports. (More hockey stories.)

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