Former Rangers 1st-round pick making mark with Capitals, ‘it’s been quite the journey’
Fourteen years after being selected by the New York Rangers with the No. 10 overall pick in the first round of the 2010 draft, Dylan McIlrath recorded the first multiple-point game of his NHL career Wednesday.
Of course, he didn’t accomplish the feat with the Rangers, for whom he last played on Oct. 18, 2016. Instead, the 32-year-old defenseman picked up two assists for the Washington Capitals in their 6-3 win against the Philadelphia Flyers at Capital One Arena.
And the feat occurred in only the 80th NHL game McIlrath has played since being a top-10 pick.
“It’s been quite the journey, that’s for sure,” McIlrath said on TNT postgame. “Obviously, a lot of ups and downs. Get drafted to the Rangers, a high pick, you kind of have a vision of where your career should be and then that wasn’t the case.”
At 6-foot-5, 232 pounds, the Rangers believed McIlrath would be an imposing force on their blue line for the next decade. But they drafted him at a time when the NHL game was becoming faster and more skilled. A dislocated kneecap early in his career hurt his mobility even more.
The most games he played for the Rangers was 34 in 2015-16. He had 64 penalty minutes, four points (two goals, two assists) and a plus-7 rating. McIlrath played one more game the following season with the Rangers before they traded him to the Florida Panthers. He’s never played anywhere near as many games in the NHL as he did in 2015-16.
“I always had the belief in myself,” McIlrath explained. “There were days, long years in the American (Hockey) League where you have your doubts, but I just kept believing that I could play at this level at some point in my career. That’s what’s kept me motivated.”
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Dylan McIlrath ‘kept developing’ in minors after leaving Rangers
Though he’d much rather play hundreds of games in the NHL rather than the AHL, McIlrath did make his mark in the minor leagues over the years. McIlrath has played 616 AHL games and won the Calder Cup three times, including each of the past two seasons as captain with Hershey, the top affiliate of the Capitals.
“I kept developing,” McIlrath explained. “(Hershey) really built a good culture, we really wanted to win every year, and we were fortunate to win two Calders. And that’s a big part of why I am here today, those days in Hershey.”
After stepping into the Capitals lineup to play all four games against the Rangers in the Eastern Conference First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last spring, McIlrath returned to win his second championship in Hershey. Then he broke camp with the Capitals this October and has played five straight games, partly because Matt Roy is injured.
It’s been a big week for the guy nicknamed “The Undertaker” back in his days with Connecticut and Hartford in the Rangers system. He had a rousing fight with Flyers enforcer Nicolas Deslauriers in a 4-1 win Tuesday, then had the primary assist on Taylor Raddysh’s game-opening goal Wednesday and another helper on a Connor McMichael goal in the second period that made it 3-0.
As if all that isn’t enough, McIlrath also has a front-row seat to watch teammate Alex Ovechkin chase the all-time NHL goals record. Ovechkin’s empty-netter Wednesday was the 855th goal of his career, leaving him 40 from passing Wayne Gretzky.
“It’s remarkable. It really hasn’t sunk in that I get to sit next to him in the locker room. He’s a living legend,” McIlrath shared. “It’s wild that he knows who I am, for one, and to be his teammate is just surreal.”
Almost as surreal as McIlrath’s journey, which, for now, includes a regular spot in the Capitals lineup. He’ll get another look at his former team when the Rangers travel down to D.C. for a clash on Tuesday.
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