Ryan McDonagh’s road to becoming a Stanley Cup champion was a long one. After years with the New York Rangers, he finally reached the peak of hockey’s highest mountain this season with the Tampa Bay Lightning. It was a long-time coming. For the 31-year-old, once viewed as one of hockey’s best defenders, the victory came in his 139th (!) career postseason game.

Unlike in New York, there hasn’t been any pressure on McDonagh to be “the guy” in Tampa; that’s Victor Hedman’s job. McDonagh’s role is to play solid, dependable minutes on the team’s second pairing, where he’s paid a handsome $6.75-million per season. The rate of pay feels a little steep for a contract that will take the player deep into his mid-30s, but McDonagh certainly earned it during this postseason.

From my perspective, it’s fair to characterize McDonagh’s Lightning career as a bit of an up-and-down experience. He’s delivered some solid minutes, but there have also been long stretches in which his underlying numbers have suggested reason for concern. A major reason for Tampa Bay’s victory this year was that he turned in more of the former than the latter. Per Natural Stat Trick, his five-on-five shot attempt share ranked second among Lightning defenders (above Victor Hedman), and his five-on-five expected goal share sat north of 56%. He did exactly what he was expected to do.

Perhaps most impressive about McDonagh’s run is that “what he was expected to do” looked very different than his career as a 40-point defender might suggest. With Hedman firing up the offence shift after shift, Jon Cooper’s coaching staff relied on McDonagh to play much more of a shut-down role during the playoffs. McDonagh adapted to the new responsibilities with ease, and limited expected goals against and scoring chances against to very low rates relative to his fellow defenders.

As someone who has been critical of McDonagh in the past, it’s difficult for me to find much fault in his performance throughout the 2020 postseason. Some likely would have wanted to see more than one goal and five points in 22 games, but McDonagh made contributions that show up on the scoresheet in the form of zeroes on the opposing side of the ledger. Those count too.

My Grade: A

Your Grade:



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