Ryan McDonagh, Derek Stepan to Pay First Visit to Hometown Minnesota Wild

Tuesday night will mark the exact two-year anniversary of Derek Stepan and Ryan McDonagh’s last competitive twirl at the Xcel Energy Center. On March 27, 2010, the two Minnesota natives helped the Wisconsin Badgers to a 5-3 win over St. Cloud State, thus clinching the NCAA West Regional.

Both professional sophomores with the New York Rangers this season, the two will end their longest stretch without a game played in their native state Tuesday night as they visit the Minnesota Wild.

McDonagh, a St. Paul native, was 11 years of age when the Wild commenced their inaugural season. His topmost amateur hockey highlight was his junior year at Cretin-Durham Hall in 2005-06, when he helped the Raiders to their first and only state championship.

One year later, shortly after his final interscholastic game, McDonagh garnered a roster spot on Team USA at the 2007 World U18 championship tournament. Months after his commencement that same spring, he was drafted 12th overall by the Montreal Canadiens, who subsequently traded his rights to the Rangers in the summer of 2009.

Stepan’s father, Brad, was himself a Rangers’ draft choice in 1985 and played 55 games for their old IHL affiliate in Denver before retiring after the 1988-89 season. A year after that, the younger Stepan was born in Hastings, less than a half-hour south of the Twin Cities.

Originally representing his hometown Hastings High School—coincidentally nicknamed the Raiders as well—Stepan sought a new challenge to begin his junior year. He moved downstate to enroll at the unique Shattuck-St. Mary’s Prep, where he made a sound impression during tryout week and made their top 18-and-under midget team.

In his first of two seasons at Shattuck in 2006-07, Stepan scored both the first and last goal of the team’s campaign. He supplied a pair of insurance strikes that sealed a 5-2 win over the Cape Cod Whalers in the USA Hockey national championship game.

Upon helping the SSM Sabres to their first repeat national title as a senior, Stepan himself entered the NHL draft, where he was selected by the Blueshirts late in the second round. From there, he moved across state boundaries to join McDonagh, then a rising sophomore with a Badger team looking to rebound from a 16-17-7 season.

Over their two seasons together in Madison, McDonagh and Stepan played six games at the Xcel Energy Center and each had a turn playing for Team USA in the World Junior Championships. Stepan would captain the Americans to a gold-medal upset over Canada in the 2009-10 tournament.

As a professional rookie last season, McDonagh split time between the Rangers and AHL’s Connecticut Whale. Upon permanently joining the parent club in early January, he ultimately finished second on the team with a plus-16 rating. Stepan, his fellow freshman, saw action in all 82 games and placed fourth on the team with 21 goals and 45 points.

Both players, who have yet to miss a game this season, will enter their first NHL business trip to their native state having already elevated their rookie standards. Stepan is again the Rangers’ fourth-leading scorer with 47, while McDonagh has a team-best plus-24 rating and 171 blocked shots (fifth in the league), along with 21 assists and 27 points from the point.