Saturday: McIlrath’s time with Washington has come to an end for the time being as the team announced that they’ve returned him to AHL Hershey. He suited up in Thursday’s game against Florida, logging 11:31 of ice time in his first action since 2019-20.
Wednesday: The Washington Capitals recalled defenseman Dylan McIlrath from the AHL’s Hershey Bears on Wednesday, the team said in a statement.
McIlrath’s recall comes as Washington has two players out of the lineup on personal leave: captain Alex Ovechkin and Aliaksei Protas. The Capitals don’t expect Ovechkin back in the lineup this week, as he remains in Russia after the passing of his father, while Protas returned to the team today after the birth of his and his wife’s first child, said NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti.
With Alexander Alexeyev already on Washington’s roster as an extra defenseman, the chances of McIlrath’s season debut appear slim, barring injuries. Now in his second season in the Capitals organization, all 118 professional games since 2021-22 have come in a Bears uniform.
The 10th overall selection in the 2010 draft by the New York Rangers, McIlrath hasn’t played an NHL game in over three years. Now 30, McIlrath has kept up the physical pedigree that earned him his lofty draft position, but his play with the puck never translated into a meaningful NHL role.
In 44 games with Hershey this season, McIlrath has logged 10 assists and leads all Hershey skaters with 83 penalty minutes.
Did he ever serve his suspension from 9/2021?
Honestly, that’s a great question. Looking at his transaction history, it doesn’t appear so. He was suspended for two regular-season games, but he’s only been on the roster for one regular-season day — 12/11/22 vs. WPG, where he was called up on emergency loan and re-assigned to Hershey on the same day. It seems he was returned to Hershey before game time, as he’s not listed on the game report as a scratch.
The McIlrath Suspension. Reminds me of B. Kliban’s notorious comic, “What did the City of New York do with King Kong?” Did the NHL create a McIlrath rule to “forget” suspensions? 40 minutes of my life is gone and nobody came by to shovel the sidewalk and driveway, either. Might as well listen to SN590 for a couple of hours, or so. :(
Good to see the Rangers get Tarasenko, who was available after McIlrath in the draft.
All’s well that ends well.
The guy is a beast! Tough as nails & never failed to stick up for a teammate. It’s a shame he was never able to reach anywhere near his potential.
That’s how he earned his nickname “The Undertaker”. Too bad his hockey skills are lacking.