Ryan Callahan

He then suffered a broken ankle in the team's 79th game of the season against the Boston Bruins after blocking a Zdeno Chára slapshot in the final minutes.

Ryan Callahan (born March 21, 1985) is an American former professional ice hockey right winger who played 13 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the New York Rangers and the Tampa Bay Lightning.

He currently serves as a studio and game analyst for the NHL on ESPN.

He became the fifth-youngest captain in team history and the first homegrown captain since Brian Leetch in October 1997.

Callahan was also the first native of the State of New York to serve as the Rangers' team captain.

He then began his junior career with the Rochester Junior Americans of the Empire Junior B Hockey League, where he played for two seasons, 1999 to 2001.

After being drafted in the 15th round of the 2001 OHL Priority Selection by the Guelph Storm, Callahan then played with the Syracuse Jr. Crunch and Buffalo Lightning of the OPJHL before moving on to a four-year Ontario Hockey League (OHL) stint with the Storm, where he played alongside future Ranger teammate Dan Girardi.

Callahan turned professional with the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League (AHL), where he played most of the 2006–07 season.

On November 16, 2022, it was announced that Callahan's number will be retired by the Guelph Storm in a ceremony commencing on November 19, 2022, during a game against the Kitchener Rangers.

Callahan received his first NHL call-up to the Rangers on November 28, 2006, making his NHL debut on December 1, but he would only play in that one game before being sent back down to the Wolf Pack.

He was called up for a second time on December 19, but would again only play in one NHL game in that stint.

Toward the end of the season, Callahan was called up for the third and final time on March 15, 2007, after scoring 35 goals in 60 AHL games, and he would stay with the Rangers through the 2007 Stanley Cup playoffs.

Two days later, on March 17, he scored his first two NHL goals against Joey MacDonald of the Boston Bruins.

He scored his first career assist on March 21 and first career game-winning goal on April 1.

He scored his first two NHL playoff goals in a 7–0 win in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal against the Atlanta Thrashers on April 17, 2007.

After scoring one goal in the first eight games of the 2007–08 season with the Rangers, Callahan was out for a month with a grade two knee sprain.

He did not quickly regain his strength at the NHL level, going his next 16 games without a goal, prompting the Rangers to send him back to the Wolf Pack on January 7, 2008.

After 11 games in Hartford, he was called up on February 3 to replace an injured Brendan Shanahan in the Rangers' line-up against the Montreal Canadiens.

Callahan tallied his second career two-goal game against the San Jose Sharks on February 17.

The following season, 2008–09, was Callahan's breakout year.

On October 1, 2008, he scored the game-winning goal for the Rangers with 20 seconds left in the inaugural Victoria Cup; the Rangers defeated Metallurg Magnitogorsk by a 4–3 tally.

In the regular season, he was third on the Rangers with 22 goals and fifth on the team with 40 total points.

Callahan was also awarded the Rangers' Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award for his hard work throughout the season, and scored the winning goal in the team's playoff-clinching win in the final home game of the season.

In the subsequent off-season, on July 13, 2009, Callahan was re-signed by the Rangers.

Callahan was named an alternate captain of the Rangers on October 2, 2009, to begin the 2009–10 season.

He suffered a broken hand on December 15, 2010, in Pittsburgh when he blocked a shot.

He missed 19 games while recovering.

Callahan served as captain of the Rangers from 2011 until he was traded to the Lightning in 2014.

Additionally, he has represented the United States in Olympic and international play.

Callahan played one year of high school ice hockey for Hilton High School.

On March 6, 2011, Callahan scored four goals and one assist as the Rangers beat the Philadelphia Flyers 7–0, simultaneously achieving the first hat-trick, four-goal game and five-point game of his NHL career.

On September 12, 2011, at the age of 26, Callahan was named the 26th captain in the history of the New York Rangers.

On February 11, 2012, Callahan scored his second hat-trick against the Philadelphia Flyers.

On February 25, 2012, Callahan scored his 100th career NHL goal, which came in overtime against the Buffalo Sabres at Madison Square Garden.

In the 2012 playoffs, he led the Rangers to their first Conference Final appearance since 1997; he also scored the first and last goals of the Rangers post-season as New York eventually fell to the New Jersey Devils in six games.

During the 2013–14 season, contract extension talks with the Rangers stalled, as the two parties were apparently $500,000 per season apart for six years – Callahan was asking $39 million for six years while New York was firm at $36 million for six years.

On March 5, 2014, the Tampa Bay Lightning traded captain Martin St. Louis and a second-round draft pick in 2015 (conditional at the time of the trade) to the New York Rangers in exchange for Callahan, a first-round pick in 2015, a conditional second-round pick in 2014 (which later became a first-round pick), and a seventh-round pick in 2015 (conditional at the time of the trade).

Both of the first-round draft picks that were acquired by the Lightning in the trade were later traded to the New York Islanders.

On June 25, 2014, five days before free agency was to begin, Callahan signed a six-year contract extension worth an annual average value of $5.8 million to stay with the Lightning.

On May 11, 2015, during the 2015 playoffs, Callahan underwent an emergency appendectomy.