Daniel Girardi, a defenceman with the Guelph Storm for three seasons, made his NHL debut this afternoon with the New York Rangers. Girardi becomes the 36th former member of the Storm to don an NHL jersey for a regular season contest. Earlier this season, Ryan Callahan also played for the Rangers after a call-up from the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack.
Girardi played for the Storm between 2002 – 2005 picking up 86 points in 142 regular season and adding 28 points in 33 playoff contests. The Welland, Ontario native is the eighth member of Guelph’s 2003-04 OHL Championship squad to get the NHL call-up. An assistant captain in 2003/04 and 2004/05 with the Storm, Girardi was traded by Guelph to the London Knights prior to the 2004/05 OHL trade deadline.
In his NHL debut, Girardi played 11:58 for the Rangers in New York’s 2-1 road win over the Flyers picking up a minor penalty for interference.
Along with Girardi, a total of 17 former Storm players have seen action in the NHL this season: Todd Bertuzzi (Florida Panthers), Dustin Brown (Los Angeles Kings), Ryan Callahan (NY Rangers), Dan Cloutier (Los Angeles Kings), Jeff Cowan (Los Angeles Kings), Kevin Dallman (Los Angeles Kings), Aaron Downey (Montreal Canadiens), Daniel Girardi (NY Rangers), Cam Janssen (New Jersey Devils), Kevin Klein (Nashville Predators), Manny Malhotra (Columbus Blue Jackets), Brian McGratton (Ottawa Senators), Jeff O’Neil (Toronto Maple Leafs),Dan Paille (Buffalo Sabres), Martin St. Pierre (Chicago Blackhawks), Fedor Tyutin (New York Rangers) and Brian Willsie (Los Angeles Kings).
In addition to these 17 players, 16 other former Storm players have also played in the National Hockey League: Craig Anderson, Eric Beaudoin, Ken Belanger, Sylvain Cloutier, Chris Hajt, Dwayne Hay, Greg Jacina, Kent McDonell, Ruman Ndur, Mike Prokopec, Matt Ryan, Charlie Stephens, Alek Stojanov, Ryan Vandenbussche, Herbert Vasilijevs and Jamie Wright.
During the past two seasons, three former Storm goaltenders Andrew Penner, Chris Beckford-Tseu and Adam Dennis have also been recalled by NHL teams and dressed as back-ups but did not see any game action.