Rick Rypien, the scrappy 27-year-old Winnipeg Jets forward who was found dead Monday, was considered perhaps the best pound-for-pound fighter in the NHL. But for more than a decade, he battled depression, a disorder that caused him to take two leaves of absence from the Vancouver Canucks.

When Rypien did not show up Monday for a scheduled physical with his new team, the Jets, team officials grew concerned, said Craig Heisinger, the Jets’ assistant general manager. A family member later found Rypien’s body at his house in Coleman, Alberta, his hometown. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Rypien’s death was “sudden” but “not suspicious.”

“He was just a simple guy with some issues to deal with,” Heisinger said Tuesday at a news conference.

Rypien was a fourth-line forward of slightly below average size who was noted for his combativeness. He fought often — 39 times in his 119-game NHL career — while scoring only nine goals and seven assists.

But he was not known as an enforcer in the same sense as Derek Boogaard, the Rangers forward found dead of an accidental overdose of oxycodone and alcohol in his Twin Cities apartment in May, and other hulking heavyweights whose primary function is to fight.

Rather, at 5 feet 11 inches and 190 pounds, Rypien fell into the category of the useful, smaller, “character” player, willing to take on anyone. In each of Rypien’s 39 NHL fights, his opponent was taller, according to Dropyourgloves.com, a website that tracks hockey fights. In 2009, he fought Hal Gill, a 6-7 Montreal defenseman.

When he heard of Rypien’s death, Mike Commodore, a Detroit defenseman, said on Twitter: “He was a warrior. Hit me so hard my eyes couldn’t focus for 30 secs.”

Jason Jaffray, a road roommate of Rypien’s with Vancouver and the Canucks’ Manitoba Moose farm club, said: “He was a guy who wouldn’t back down from anyone. He was a guy that was definitely fearless.”

Fearlessness was a trait that Rypien most likely acquired from his father, Wes, a former boxer.

“He was a Canadian Golden Gloves champion when he was 19 or 20,” Rypien said in 2008. “He still works out to stay in shape and still shows me stuff — I’d have to give it to him on toughness.”

Though undrafted, Rypien was signed by Vancouver in 2005 after a junior career in which he was captain of the Regina Pats in Saskatchewan. While he was with the Pats, his girlfriend was killed in a car accident.

Peter Engelhardt, whose family Rypien was living with at the time, told The Calgary Herald that Rypien “changed a little bit, right then and there” but added that “everybody’s going to, when you have something like this happen.”

During the next six years, Rypien shuttled between the Canucks and their minor league affiliate, the Winnipeg-based Manitoba Moose. The Canucks did not re-sign him when his contract expired at the end of last season. He then signed with the Jets, who were the Atlanta Thrashers until they were sold this summer.

“There’s a lot I’m going to miss about him,” said Heisinger, who was the Moose’s manager during Rypien’s six years with the Vancouver organization. “Certainly there were no drug or alcohol issues. Depression is the one word that has been used, and that’s accurate.”