The night the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award is given out is always an extremely special night for the New York Rangers and their fans. It’s a night we reflect on what exactly it means to be a part of the Rangers community and it’s only been further amplified since the unfortunate passing of Steven McDonald in 2018. Each year, this award is given to a fan-voted Rangers player who goes “above and beyond the call of duty” similar to how Steven McDonald did, all those years of being a NYC Police Officer. As fans cast their votes, let’s take a look at some of the favorites for the award this year and why there are so many cases to be made for different guys.
Honorable Mentions
Before we get into some of the favorite candidates, let's talk about some honorable mentions. Both Adam Fox and Mika Zibanejad have won this award in the past and have reason to be in the conversation again. While Adam Fox has gone through spells where he wasn’t his usual perfect self, he is still the teams top defenseman and continuously leads the team in time on ice. He’s an instrumental piece to the power play unit, can set up his teammates in highlight reel fashion and score goals just as easily. Growing up a Rangers fan, he knows what this award means to the team and the community and has fully embodied everything it means into the player he is.
Prior to Fox winning the award last year, Mika Zibanejad won it two years in a row. Zibanejad is the number one center this team has desperately tried to find since Brad Richards and Mika has proven to be our guy for the long haul as he signed his eight year extension at the beginning of this year. Similar to Fox, Zibanejad is one of the reasons why the Rangers power play is as good as it is. In addition to that, Mika continues to be one of the best players in the National Hockey League every year come the month of March and is just as big a leader to this team as guys like Kreider and Trouba are. He has an incredible shot, can score goals, set up his teammates and gives it his all every day that he puts the Rangers uniform on.
Ryan Lindgren is another guy who isn’t always going to be on the stat sheet or make the fancy plays for the team but he’s a heart and soul type of player who is quick to have his teammates back or block a shot when he has too. He puts his sweat and literally blood into his game and has been Adam Fox’s left hand man for the last couple of seasons. Like Fox, Lindgren went through spells this season where he wasn’t looking 100% but that very well could have been because of injuries we didn’t know about or just from the exhaustion of being a top pair defenseman in an 82 game season.
Ryan Strome is another leader on this team who you often don’t realize how important he is to the team until he’s not in the lineup. Since coming to the Rangers, he’s been the perfect thing two in the Rangers 1-2 punch with their first two lines. He’s Panarin’s guy, provides goal scoring, is a part of that power play and quickly became a leader on this team. He’s great with the media, often being recognized as one of the best interviews on the team, the players love him, fans love him and could absolutely be considered for this award as well.
Now for some more likely candidates:
Artemi Panarin
Artemi Panarin is an obvious candidate for this award. There’s no question he is an elite player and has had one of the biggest impacts on this team. Just looking at his stats alone you can see how much of a team guy he is as he’s pushing 70 assists on the year with plenty of games left. Night in and night out he’s one of the most relied on guys for Gerard Gallant and the New York Rangers. Whenever a game goes to overtime or a shootout, he’s one of the first guys you’re banking on to make that winning play. Like Zibanejad and Fox, he’s a key piece to the team’s power play unit which is among the best in the league. He’s currently having a great stretch of games and is everything you could ask for from a superstar player.
Igor Shesterkin
It’s hard to say for sure whether the Rangers would have anywhere close to the success they had this season without the extra effort of Igor Shesterkin. Not only is Igor having one of the best seasons a Rangers goalie has ever had, he’s having one of the best seasons any goalie has ever had in the history of the National Hockey League. While conversation has slowed down about him being a Hart Trophy Candidate, he is pretty much a lock for the Vezina Trophy this season. In addition to what he brings to the team on the ice, he seems to have great character off the ice and truly appreciates where he is with this team.
Jacob Trouba
With Adam Fox coming off a Norris Trophy season and all the excitement of prospects like Braden Schneider and Nils Lundkvist, Trouba hype kind of fell by the wayside. In reality, Jacob Trouba has arguably been the most consistent defender for this Rangers team. He leads the Rangers D-squad in goals, is probably the second best hitter on the team, fights when he has to, kills penalties and is one of the most relied on guys in the room. He has formed a great partnership with K’Andre Miller on the ice and has become a bit of a mentor/role model for Braden Schneider, who plays a similar style. He’s probably right behind Kreider in the deserving conversation of who should wear the “C” if they were to name a captain and has encompassed everything about being a New York Ranger and helped cultivate the identity this team has today making him a strong candidate for this award.
Ryan Reaves
There can be a real interesting case made for the Rangers veteran fourth liner. If you look back at previous Steven McDonald Award Winners you’ll see a couple names like Sandy McCarthy, Jed Ortmeyer, Matthew Barnaby and even Brandon Prust. The award isn’t specific to tough guys but they do have a history of being voted for it. The Rangers brought Ryan Reaves in over the off-season, trading a third round pick for him. Management wanted to change the identity of this team, bringing in guys with experience who would make the team tougher to play against. Reaves not only brings a physical game and sense of protection to this team, he brings leadership, experience and a vibe that truly brings out the best in his teammates.
I think one of the most important things to come from him was just recently when he was asked about how he feels about being scratched. With all the acquisitions at the trade deadline, this Rangers team is so deep causing guys like Reaves to draw the short stick and spend more nights than ideal in the press box. Reaves approached it in such a positive manner, indicating that he understands his role and still does all the things he normally does before the game to keep the energy in the room high. Whether or not he plays, he still gets the guys pumped up and screams for their goalie to release the boys and that’s such a valuable type of leadership. Not to mention the impact he’s had on younger guys playing with more of a physical edge than they may have before being teammates. During warm-ups, he’s passing the pucks to guys, getting everyone ready, little things like this are such important intangibles that are a part of successful groups.
Barclay Goodrow
Kind of a sleeper pick is one of the Rangers first acquisitions over the off-season as they began to prepare to be more of a contending type of team. Barclay Goodrow doesn’t lead the Rangers in any of the fancy stats but he has been a consistent, driving force for this team all season long. Whenever guys go down, Goodrow often found himself being the guy moving up and down the lineup. Whether he was centering a line, playing the right side in the top six or left side of the bottom six, he gives it his all every night. Prior to the acquisition of Copp, he was probably the guy they had the most confidence in to win big face-offs, often putting him out there in key situations, sometimes as a second center option in the event someone got kicked out of the face-off. He’s an essential penalty killer and is often on the ice in the games final minutes when the team is holding on to a close lead, his contract may have rubbed fans the wrong way but he has been a huge part of this teams success all season long and could make a case for earning this award.
Chris Kreider
I mean, what can you really say about Chris that hasn’t already been said already? The team may not have an official captain but it’s clearly him. On top of being a leader to this team, he’s having a career year, breaking Rangers records, is such a team first guy, he’s an obvious candidate and probable front runner for this award. In addition to everything he is, Kreider has the longest tenure with the Rangers, really being the only piece to make it through the rebuild. He’s a career New York Ranger and deserves to win this award at least once throughout his career and it’s hard to imagine there will be another year where he deserves it more than he does right now.
This New York Rangers team has been such a joy to watch this season and have made this one of the most fun seasons for fans in a long time. Gallant and the rest of the staff have really instilled a team first mentality within this group. Night in and night out, they’re playing for each other and guys up and down the lineup have proven to give it their all and do whatever is asked of them to make this group successful. As a result of that, they have been awarded with the franchises first playoff berth since the rebuild began. You can make a case for almost everyone going the extra mile on this team this season. So many guys have had career years and the camaraderie surrounding it has been a major cause for this success. While there are certainly a couple front runners, it’ll be very interesting to see who’s name gets called during that always touching pregame ceremony.
Chris Feldman
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