The Rangers’ 2010 first-round decision on Dylan McIlrath has aged badly, and the reason is sitting right there on the board: Vladimir Tarasenko.
New York used the 10th overall pick on McIlrath after Taylor Hall, Tyler Seguin, and Ryan Johansen had already gone off the board. The idea was simple enough at the time - McIlrath was supposed to become a long-term piece for the franchise. Instead, the Rangers passed on one of the best scoring forwards available.
With hindsight, that choice looks brutal. Tarasenko went on to become a consistent 30-plus goal scorer and a multi-time All-Star, the kind of player any team would love to have in its prime. The Rangers, meanwhile, got very little return from McIlrath beyond a brief run of physicality and fighting.
McIlrath spent most of his time in the AHL. In his first two seasons, 2013-14 and 2014-15, he played only three games for the Rangers. His longest stretch in New York came in 2015-16, when he appeared in 34 games and put up two goals, two assists, a plus-seven plus/minus rating, and 64 penalty minutes.
He was known more for his willingness to fight than for his skillset, and even Alain Vigneault didn’t see him as an every-night player. That made the first-round investment look worse as time went on.
By November of 2016, the Rangers moved on, trading McIlrath to the Florida Panthers for Steven Kampfer and a seventh-round pick. McIlrath played five games for Florida, then later spent time with the Detroit Red Wings from 2018-20 before joining the Washington Capitals in 2022, where he still plays.
Across 10 seasons and 105 games, McIlrath has nine points - three goals and six assists - along with 171 penalty minutes.
Tarasenko’s path through New York added another layer to the whole story. The Rangers eventually acquired him in 2022-23 for Sammy Blais, Hunter Skinner, a 2023 first-round pick, and a 2024 fourth-round pick, with Niko Mikkola also coming over. That was part of the team’s all-in push after losing the Eastern Conference Finals the year before, and it came alongside the Patrick Kane trade deadline move.
Tarasenko produced eight goals and 13 assists in 31 regular-season games for the Rangers. In the playoffs, New York was bounced by the rival New Jersey Devils in the first round, and Tarasenko had three goals and one assist in that seven-game series.
He left in free agency for the Ottawa Senators, then was traded to the Florida Panthers, where he helped eliminate the Rangers in the 2024 Eastern Conference Finals and later won the Stanley Cup.
Before arriving in New York, Tarasenko had already piled up 262 goals and 291 assists in 644 games. That’s the kind of offense the Rangers could have used a lot earlier - especially back when they chose McIlrath and let him walk right past them.
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