With the new year comes a new home for former Wisconsin defenseman Ryan McDonagh. A tweet from Rangers beat writer Larry Brooks indicates that McDonagh has been called up by the New York Rangers and will take the place of Michael Del Zotto who will be sent to the Rangers AHL affiliate.McDonagh has spent the first half of this season with the Connecticut Whale of the AHL. Through 38 games, the stay at home defenseman has recorded one goal and seven assists and is a plus seven.
The Arden Hills, MN native decided to give up his final year of eligibility at Wisconsin to sign a pro contract with the Rangers this summer. McDonagh was a captain for Wisconsin last season and played an incredible amount of minutes helping lead the Badgers to the Frozen Four.
The 21 year old McDonagh has a cap hit of 1.3 million with the Rangers and he will make a pro rated portion of that salary in addition to his signing bonus and pro rated AHL salary. If McDonagh ends up finishing the season in New York I'm guessing he'll end up taking in somewhere around three quarter of a million dollars this season.
The Rangers are off for a few days and then will host Jamie McBain and the Carolina Hurricanes at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night. Although in his press conference today Rangers head coach John Tortorella said that McDonagh will not make his debut on Wednesday, instead opting to play former Hobey Baker winner Matt Gilroy. In fact, Tortorella mentioned that McDonagh might not play at all during his call up.
If McDonagh makes the blue shirts lineup, he will be the 19th former Badger to suit up for an NHL game this season.
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