Game On Magazine - April 2017 Game on Preview Edition | Page 86

By Carter Brooks
Photos by James Carey Lauder and
Sam Iannamico/Grand Rapids Griffins
Winnipeg’s Dylan McIlrath had an
amazing 2016-17 hockey season. He
started the campaign with the AHL’s
Hartford Wolf Pack and played one
game with the NHL’s New York Rangers.
Then he was traded to the NHL’s Florida
Panthers where he played five more NHL
games and was then sent to the AHL’s
Springfield Indians. At the NHL trade
deadline, he was moved to the Detroit
Red Wings where he was immediately
sent to the AHL’s Grand Rapids. He not
only finished the season in Grand Rapids,
but he was one of the leaders as the
Griffins won the Calder Cup, emblematic
of the AHL championship. He played in
five cities in two leagues and won one of
the most prestigious championships in
the game. Hockey is a crazy game.
Many athletes dream of retiring as a
champion. A select few succeed while
countless others fail to grasp the golden
ring at the end of their lofty aspirations.
So if it happened to be his dream to
go out on top, Winnipeg’s own Dylan
McIlrath could have retired from
professional hockey this past June at
the tender age of 25.
As a member of the Grand Rapids
Griffins, McIlrath helped shut down
Winkler’s Byron Froese, Oakbank’s Brett
Howden and their Syracuse Crunch
teammates in the American Hockey
League finals, en route to a Calder Cup
championship. It may not have been the
Stanley Cup, but according to Big Mac,
it was about as close as the 6-foot-5,
235-pound shutdown defenseman
could possibly get.
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