Dylan McIlrath has many nicknames. One of them, according to Rangers left wing Chris Kreider, is “Diesel.”
 
There’s not much more you need to know about why the Rangers called up McIlrath to make his NHL debut Thursday night at the Garden against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
 
McIlrath, 21, the organization’s 10^th overall pick in 2010, is here because he is tough. He hasn’t been in the pros because he wasn’t a good enough skater, and then at the summer 2012 development camp he dislocated his left knee cap, requiring surgery and setting back all the progress he had made.
 
BRASSARD, CALLAHAN, STAAL ALL OUT OF LINEUP FOR RANGERS VS. JACKETS

Kreider, McIlrath’s teammate in the AHL last season, said Thursday morning that what people don’t know about McIlrath, though, is “how hard he works,” especially in his daily rehabilitation from that knee surgery. Kreider called McIlrath “passionate,” the “consummate team guy,” someone who “sticks up for his teammates,” and studious.
 
“He’s constantly watching hockey,” Kreider said. “He wants to be here. He knows everything about this team. He knows everything about all the guys on this team.”
 
McIlrath – as friendly and humble off the ice as he is mean on it – was ecstatic about his upcoming debut. He is a right-handed shot. He will replace Justin Falk in the lineup.
 
“Just pure excitement,” McIlrath said. “Just stepping on that Garden ice, I know it was just for a pregame skate, but I couldn’t help but look around. It’s the dream I’ve been waiting for since draft day and something special. I’m gonna soak it in.”
 
McIlrath said six family and friends will be in the Garden stands to watch his debut in person. It would be surprise if they didn’t see his first NHL fight. McIlrath fought in his first-ever AHL game also, a throwdown with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers’ Alex O’Neil on April 9, 2011.
 
He allowed that his call up at this time likely had to do with his willingness and effectiveness as an intimidator.
 
“There’s no surprise. That’s the type of player I am, and maybe that’s why they brought me up, to add a little bit of that element,” McIlrath said. “I’m not going to do anything out of the ordinary that’s (not) in my game, if it comes to the grit and the sandpaper. I’m going to do anything I can to help the team win.”
 
“If it happens, it happens,” he said, when asked if he thinks he’ll be challenged to a fight immediately. “It happened when I came into the AHL right away; I was tested early. So we’ll see what happens.”
 
This season for the Rangers’ AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack, McIlrath has three goals, four assists and 115 penalty minutes in 24 games.
 
McIlrath was honest about his disappointment with his performance in September while trying to make the Rangers’ roster, and he said in the AHL he got back to playing to his strengths.
 
“I didn’t have the training camp I wanted,” he said. “I wanted to show maybe I could step in right away, but they sent me down and I came in with a positive attitude. I felt comfortable right away, and just started playing my game, and it showed. I’m just happy to be here.
 
“I just briefly talked with (assistant coach Ulf Samuelsson) and just went over some tactical things, but they just want me to play my game,” he continued. “That’s how I got here, and maybe in camp I was doing something I wasn’t (used to). (I’m going to) just do what brought me here.”
 
Coach Alain Vigneault said that Wolf Pack coach Ken Gernander gave McIlrath positive reviews and recommended him as the call-up when the Rangers staff reached down for a defenseman.
 
“I talked yesterday with Ken in Hartford, and we talked about the possibility of calling up a defenseman, and his name came up,” Vigneault said. “He felt that the way Dylan had played defensively, penalty-killing, that he was the guy to call up. He had been improving since we sent him down, and if we wanted any of his defenseman, he was the one to call up. So (we) trust the coach and call him up.
 
“He definitely brings size and hopefully some physicality to our game,” Vigneault continued. “He’s done that, whether it (has been) in junior or the American league, and hopefully he can do it at this level.”
 
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