All season long, I wondered a lot of things regarding Dylan McIlrath’s season, as did a lot of you.
One of the those, right off the bat, was whether he made the team in training camp — instead of Raphael Diaz — just because it would have required waivers, and most likely the loss of McIlrath to another team, to send him to Hartford.
Another was whether McIlrath, the first-round pick who was a gamble and a project because of his skating even before he had major knee injuries, could skate well enough to play in coach Alain Vigneault’s system.
I never wondered about his toughness, and the more I watched the kid play, and the more I heard what his teammates thought of him, and the more I saw what a good kid he is and how hungry he was to learn and gain experience, the more I thought about him.
As the season went on, McIlrath showed that he wasn’t completely overmatched by the speed of the NHL game. Not only that, he showed that he was just fine for the most part defensively, that he could make the first pass out of the zone, that he had a terrific shot and a good sense when to get involved, and how, in the offensive zone.
So as the season went on, I wondered, as all of you did, why Vigneault sat him virtually every time the Rangers had six other healthy defensemen. Why, with Dan Girardi playing banged up all year, and his game deteriorating, and the miles of all those playoff seasons piling up on him, McIlrath couldn’t give him an occasional breather. Why, with Dan Boyle 39 and struggling all season, but to a much higher degree when he got worn down by the schedule, McIlrath couldn’t help keep him fresh by playing in his spot more frequently.
Which, of course, now makes me wonder if Vigneault has any plans for McIlrath at all next season, when Boyle will be gone, when who knows how much Girardi will play (assuming he’s not bought out or moved)? Makes me wonder if Mcilrath can be a top six defenseman for this team … because I am pretty sure he can and would be a top six on plenty of NHL teams.
Not that he’s perfect, or even more than a No. 6. He had some games as the season wore on where he was burned by speed wide, the Chicago game standing out in my mind. But Girardi got toasted by speed too. As did Boyle.
I recall three games involving McIlrath this season, in reverse order:
3) He scored his first NHL goal (photo) Dec. 15 vs. Edmonton, becoming the first Rangers rookie defenseman to score a goal since Ryan McDonagh at the end of the 2010-11 season.
2) That ridiculous game in Brooklyn where all sorts of cheapshot stuff was going on. At the end of the second period, he and Matt Martin dropped the gloves. The linesmen leaped in and prevented the fight (why? fighting is allowed and almost always allowed when two opponents are willing and able?). The result was two minutes each, and early in the third period, during the resulting 4-on-4, the Islanders scored. When McIlrath’s penalty was over, Brock Nelson whacked at a rebound under Henrik Lundqvist. McIlrath gave him a relative love tap, a tiny rabbit punch, and went to the penalty box. The Islanders scored on the power play. Cost the Rangers the game. The irony being that if McIlrath had been allowed to fight Martin, there’s no 4-on-4, and more irony being that McIlrath would still have been in the box instead of punching Nelson and giving Brooklyn the decisive power play.
1) Though he was coy all week long, leading into a Valentine’s Day home game with Philadelphia, McIlrath pretty much told Wayne Simmonds during warmups that Simmonds was going to have to deal with him during the game; was going to have to answer for sucker-punching and concussing Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh eight days earlier. On McIlrath’s first shift, instead of chasing Simmonds, McIlrath belted Simmonds’ linemate Jake Voracek, clean and extra hard, forcing Simmonds to respond. They dropped the gloves — credit to Simmonds, a middleweight who handled himself very well — and McIlrath made an indelible mark on the game, on his teammates, for his captain.
CLICK HERE TO SEE DYLAN McILRATH’S 2015-16 GAME-BY-GAME LOG.
For the season, he played 34 games, scoring two goals, two assists, 64 penalty minutes. He delivered 93 hits — most of them loud — an average of 2.7 per game, which led all NHL rookie defensemen. Though plus/minus is a dumb stat, the kid was plus or even in 29 of his 34 games.
He also seemed to find some chemistry with Keith Yandle, who played some of his best hockey of the season paired with McIlrath when injuries struck.
Now he has to be re-signed as a restricted free agent (probably around $900,000 per) if he’s in their plans, or moved if he’s not.
“Coming into this year I was on the outside looking in,” McIlrath said. “I had to earn a roster spot, so if you look at it that way, I feel like I had a successful season personally. Obviously (the playoff loss) was a tough end result, but I feel like i needed to get my foot in the door this year and hop[efully it helps me coming into camp next year, having a sense of confidence coming in here.”
Yeah, you probably guessed by now, nobody’s getting an A.
Grade: B.
Twitter: @RangersReport.
Photos: The Associated Press (top) and Getty Images (right).
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