In the ninety one year history of the New York Rangers a total of one thousand and twenty nine players have worn the Broadway Blueshirt. Of those, only sixty seven have appeared in four hundred or more regular season games as a Ranger.
Tonight that group will grow by one more, when Ryan McDonagh appears in his 400th regular season game as a New York Ranger. It’s a substantial accomplishment for the Minnesotan, who could just as easily be celebrating the milestone with the team he was drafted by – Montreal.
Back on June 30th, 2009 Glen Sather pulled off his best trade as New York General Manager when he acquired McDonagh, Christopher Higgins, Doug Janik and Pavel Valentenko in exchange for Scott Gomez, Tom Pyatt and Michael Busto.
Janik left the next day, Higgins was traded during his first season and Valentenko never made it to the next step, but in McDonagh they got a real gem.
The former first round draft pick was still playing for the University of Wisconsin at the time, and the trade caught him off guard. It took a little convincing to get him to sign with the Rangers, but they had help from fellow team mate Derek Stepan, who helped seal the deal.
Seven seasons into his Rangers career, McDonagh now joins a relatively exclusive club for the Blueshirts, and at 27 he still has plenty of seasons to build upon that number. He becomes the fifth active Ranger to reach the milestone, joining Dan Girardi -731, Henrik Lundqvist – 692, Marc Staal – 626, Stepan – 443
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