Rangers' Vincent Trocheck is likely to get traded this week, and he seems prepared for it
Vincent Trocheck of the New York Rangers plays the puck against Boone Jenner of the Columbus Blue Jackets at Madison Square Garden on Monday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
GREENBURGH
Vincent Trocheck has made peace with it. When the call comes, letting him know he’s been traded, he’ll be ready to go.
“If I get traded, I’m fine,’’ Trocheck said in a candid group interview after the Rangers’ morning skate before their game at the Garden against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday, four days before Friday’s trade deadline. “I’m not worried about myself. I’m more worried about my family. That’s the only thing that I have to worry about.”
Weeks ago, after general manager Chris Drury announced the Rangers would be entering a “retool’’ phase, Trocheck broke the news to his two children, son Leo, 7, and daughter Lennon, 5, that the family might be leaving.
“My daughter has no idea what’s going on,’’ he said. “My son was like, ‘Well, I’ll stay because, you know, I have a hockey team here. I didn’t get traded.’ And I’m like, ‘It’s a good point.’ ’’
From the time Drury announced the Rangers were shifting their focus to the future, it’s been pretty much a given that Trocheck would be traded.
As valuable as he would be to the retooling Rangers as a player and leader, he’s also a commodity coveted by teams with Stanley Cup aspirations — a veteran center who wins faceoffs, plays with grit, kills penalties and plays on the power play, and who helped Team USA win Olympic gold. The return he would bring in a trade figured to be too good to pass up.
Trocheck said he has a “great relationship’’ with Drury. He said Drury has “been very open and honest with me and transparent.’’ He feels as if he’s been kept in the loop as much as necessary on what’s going on.
With a 12-team no-trade clause in his contract, Trocheck was asked if he has any preferences in where he gets traded.
“If I’m gonna get traded, and it’s to a team that’s in the same situation as us, then I don’t want to move,’’ he said. “That sounds miserable in a new city. And I am 32 years old. I would like to win a Stanley Cup. So if I am going to get traded, I would like to go to a team that’s winning or has a chance to win.’’
He also confirmed reports that he would prefer not to go to the West Coast.
“Family is important to me,’’ he said, “and my family is on the East Coast.’’
Having had time to come to grips with his situation has helped him, Trocheck said. He has had a chance to really focus on savoring every moment, such as the warm ovation he got from the fans when he was introduced in the starting lineup for Saturday’s game against Pittsburgh and the crowd’s chants of “USA! USA!’’ after he scored the only goal of the shootout in the Rangers’ 3-2 win.
“I’ve been trying so hard to just take everything in the last month,’’ Trocheck said. “I mean, with the Olympics, that was one of those moments where I’m just trying to sit there in the moment and take it all in. There’s a good chance I don’t ever get to do that again. So that was a month where I just tried to stay . . . in the [moment] as much as I possibly could. And now it’s the same thing.’’
Coach Mike Sullivan said at the morning skate that he hadn’t had any discussions with Drury about holding Trocheck out of the lineup to guard against injury.
Trocheck skated on his regular line with wingers Alexis Lafreniere and Will Cuylle at the morning skate and took his place on the top power-play unit.
But Artemi Panarin took part in the morning skate with the Rangers at UBS Arena before their Jan. 28 game against the Islanders, and that afternoon the team decided to pull him from the lineup. He sat out three games before being traded to the Kings on Feb. 5.
Sullivan, who coached Team USA, insisted it hasn’t been awkward being around Trocheck these last few days as the trade deadline approached.
“Vince and I have had a number of conversations around this,’’ Sullivan said. “I mean, you guys know how I feel about him. We obviously know he’s a really good player, in so many ways. And so I don’t think it’s awkward.”
Sullivan noted that “nothing’s etched in stone’’ and said his advice to Trocheck was just to “stay in the moment.’’
“Bring the game that you’re so capable of playing,’’ he said. “He’s such an impactful player on both sides of the puck with how he plays the game . . . He’s a good player. He’s a great person. You know, sometimes the business of the game is difficult. This is part of it.’’
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
