Dan Girardi

Dan Girardi
Girardi in October 2014.
Born	(1984-04-29) April 29, 1984 (age 32) Welland, Ontario, Canada
Height	6 ft 1 in (185 cm)
Weight	206 lb (93 kg; 14 st 10 lb)
Position	Defence
Shoots	Right
NHL team	New York Rangers
NHL Draft	Undrafted
Playing career	2005–present

Daniel "Dan" Girardi (born April 29, 1984) is a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman currently playing for the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL). Undrafted, Girardi has played his entire NHL career in the New York Rangers organization.

Girardi grew up playing minor hockey in his hometown of Welland, Ontario, with the Welland Tigers of the OMHA's Niagara District and South Central AAA Leagues. He was a member of the OMHA Minor Atom AAA Championship team in 1995 and an OMHA Finalist team in Minor Peewee in 1997.

During his junior career, he was a member of the London Knights team that won the 2005 OHL Championship and the 2005 Memorial Cup.

Although eligible in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft, Girardi surprisingly went undrafted, as no NHL team felt he was a skilled enough player to play professionally, in spite of having a relatively good year in the Ontario Hockey League with 39 points in 68 games. Not to be discouraged, Girardi persevered and contacted several NHL teams for a tryout. The New York Rangers took a second look at Girardi and invited him to their training camp in the 2005-2006 season. He eventually signed a free agent, two-way American Hockey League (AHL) contract with the Hartford Wolf Pack, the Rangers' AHL affiliate, and began the 2005–06 season with the Charlotte Checkers of the ECHL. Eventually, Girardi was called up to the AHL's Wolfpack and while there, was signed to an NHL deal by the Rangers. Girardi was called up by the New York Rangers on January 27, 2007, after an injury to Rangers defenceman Darius Kasparaitis. Since that call-up, Girardi has dressed for every regular season and post-season game that the Rangers have played, except for two games in the 2010–11 season when he was sidelined with a rib injury in late January 2011; this ended a consecutive games-played streak at 330.