Brandon Dubinsky

Brandon Dubinsky (born on April 29, 1986) is an American professional ice hockey player for and an alternate captain of the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League (NHL).

Early Playing Career
Brandon began playing youth hockey in Anchorage and graduated from Service High School in 2004.

He played his junior career with Portland Winter Hawks of the Western Hockey League (WHL) for four years and was a two-time Western Conference second team All-Star before being drafted in the second round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft by the New York Rangers.

New York Rangers
Brandon played for the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League (AHL) for most of the 2006-2007 season. On March 8, 2007, he played in his first game against the New York Islanders.

On November 8, 2007, Brandon scored his first NHL goal against Marc-André Fleury in a 4-2 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins. He was the 3rd star of the game. Much of the season was spent centering the Rangers' first forward line with Jaromir Jagr and Sean Avery.

Brandon was one of sixteen rookies selected to participate in the 2008 YoungStars competition at the 56th NHL All-Star Game in Atlanta. He scored two goals and one assist and was named YoungStars Most Valuable Player.

Brandon scored his first career playoff goal in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals against the New Jersey Devils on April 13, 2008. His successful rookie season was marked on April 4, 2008 when he was awarded the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award for the 2007-08 season and "Rookie of the Year" for the Rangers as voted by his teammates.

On May 12, 2008, Brandon scored a hat trick in his first World Championships, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, against Norway. Team USA went on to win the game 9-1.

On November 24, 2008, Brandon scored a Gordie Howe hat trick against the Phoenix Coyotes. He squared off against the Coyotes' tough guy Daniel Carcillo protecting the Rangers' netminder Henrik Lundqvist at 2:58 into the first, taking a five-minute major penalty for fighting.

Then, Brandon scored a wraparound goal 1 minute 15 seconds into the second period (which ended up being the game winner). Then, he finished the "Gordie" with an assist to Dan Girardi who scored a power play goal from the blue line at 7:37 into the third period.

The Rangers won the game 4-1 and Dubinsky along with Lundqvist and Zherdev were named the three stars. Ranger coach Tom Renney called the feat a "Gordie Orr hat trick" claiming that Brandon "didn't do that well in the fight."

Brandon finished his second full season with one point more than his previous season. Despite a strong start with a game-winning goal in the Rangers' first game and a streak of 11 points in his first 11 games in 2008-09, he also suffered a 20-game goal-scoring drought.

On April 15, 2009, Brandon scored the game-winning goal with 8:17 remaining in the third period of the Rangers' first game of the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Eastern Conference Quarterfinals against the Washington Capitals.

After holding out at the beginning of the 2009–10 season and missing over a week of training camp, Brandon signed a two-year contract worth $3.7 million as a restricted free agent. He tallied 3 goals and 10 points on the season before suffering a broken hand in a game against the Calgary Flames on November 7, 2009 which relegated him to the injured reserved list for more than a month.

Brandon returned to the Rangers' lineup on December 14th against the Atlanta Thrashers. Four games later, he scored his first goal in more than two months against the Carolina Hurricanes. The goal was the game-winner in a 3-1 Rangers victory.

Despite missing over a month due to injury, Brandon finished the season with career highs in goals and points.

After the 2010-11 season, Brandon avoided arbitration with the Rangers and signed a four-year, $16.8 million contract.

Columbus Blue Jackets
On July 23, 2012, Brandon was traded along with Artem Anisimov Tim Erixon and a first round draft pick in 2013 to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Rick Nash, minor leaguer Steven Delisle and a conditional third round pick in the same draft.

During the 2012–13 NHL lockout, he played for the Alaska Aces of the ECHL. After the lockout, Brandon made his debut with the Blue Jackets.

Personal Life
Brandon's parents & two brothers reside in Anchorage, Alaska. He became engaged to his fiancee Brenna McGuire (a model and former basketball player for the University of Virginia Cavaliers) while on vacation in Mexico during the NHL All-Star Game.