dylan mcilrath

Please play me? (Photo: Noah K. Murray / USA Today Sports)

Injuries are a common occurrence in hockey. Whether it’s bumps and bruises, broken bones, or torn ligaments, they happen all the time and teams around the league deal with injuries regularly. For the Rangers, they have two players on their blue line that have been dealing with injuries. Dan Girardi has a fractured knee cap, and Kevin Klein has a broken thumb.

Klein’s injury is the most recent, having occurred last week. He missed exactly one game before returning to the lineup in Philadelphia. Girardi’s been dealing with the knee cap injury for most of the season. Neither missed significant time, even though Dylan McIlrath, a former first round pick that the Rangers have spent five years developing, is sitting in the press box for his chance.

But are they really performing better injured than a healthy McIlrath? By the numbers, McIlrath is deserving of more time, and he’s outplaying most of his blue line brethren as well.

wGk9knXQFEmAAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==

From the above, we can see that McIlrath is driving possession, relative to his teammates (darker shades of blue are better), better than all except Keith Yandle. Yes, even better than the aforementioned Klein. Part of this may be due to him playing primarily with Yandle, but he’s been able to hold his own and Yandle certainly seems comfortable with him on the ice.

In terms of pure CF%, McIlrath has the highest rate at 53.8%. That’s higher than Yandle (52.53%) and Klein (49.96%), who are numbers two and three, respectively. Just based off that, we can go with McIlrath deserving more time without injuries to Klein and Girardi.

Girardi was slowing down even without the fractured knee cap, and Klein had a lot of trouble handling the puck on Saturday. It’s understood that they can’t do any further damage, but it is certainly affecting their on-ice performance. Girardi, even though he’s been better lately, still gets burned regularly. Klein has only played one game with his thumb injury, but if he still can’t handle the puck, he may be a hindrance.

Both guys are warriors, being able to play with fractures is incredibly painful and difficult. This isn’t to take away anything they are able to fight through. It’s a discussion of what is best for the team. And even beyond the numbers above, McIlrath has had a net positive effect on most of his teammates when on the ice.

wowy-1516-NYR-mcilrdy92-shots

You’ll notice from the chart above, from the indispensable hockeyviz.com, that McIlrath’s effect on his teammates –the purple boxes– tends to gravitate towards “good” instead of “bad.” When he isn’t with them –the red boxes– they are more towards “bad.” It’s simply mind boggling that he doesn’t get more playing time.

So if McIlrath has been playing well, certainly well enough to earn more playing time when everyone is healthy, why isn’t he getting more playing time when guys are hurt? Playing him won’t hurt the team, and there is a compelling argument to be made that he will improve the team. This is a question only Alain Vigneault can answer, and it makes you wonder what it will take to get him into the lineup.

Share: 

Mentioned in this article:

More About: