Capitals defenseman Dylan McIlrath is set to face the team that drafted him Tuesday night in Washington.
That was 14 years ago. McIlrath played only 38 NHL games with the team that drafted him — he didn’t even make his NHL debut until Dec. 12, 2013, three years after he was picked — and was traded in 2016 to the Florida Panthers, with whom he played just five games. McIlrath was then traded for the second time in the same season to the Detroit Red Wings, landing with their American Hockey League affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins. McIlrath won the first Calder Cup of his career that spring with Grand Rapids, but he played just 23 NHL games across four-plus seasons in Detroit’s organization.
In 2021, he signed as a free agent with the Washington Capitals as a veteran expected to anchor the blue line for the Hershey Bears, Washington’s AHL affiliate. McIlrath was named Hershey’s captain a year later.
It all has been a bit of a whirlwind for McIlrath since. He led the Bears to Calder Cup championships in 2023 and 2024 — the latter coming after a stint with Washington during the playoffs, a first-round sweep at the hands of the Rangers. The whirlwind picked up speed when McIlrath made Washington’s opening night roster this month, his first time making the NHL out of training camp since 2016.
“It’s a pretty cool moment for him and his family and how his career has progressed from being a first-round pick and being in a couple different organizations in New York and Detroit,” Capitals Coach Spencer Carbery said in early October. “Finding a home here in Washington’s organization, the Calder Cups that he’s won. I just have such an appreciation for veteran players that, even though their path may have gone a little askew or maybe not the way they had drawn it up originally when they were drafted, but they just keep grinding and trying to find a way to get better and don’t give up.”