Colin Stephenson: A Vincent Trocheck trade would be more than a 'retool' for Rangers

It’s been more than a week since Chris Drury announced to the world that the Rangers were throwing in the towel on the 2025-26 season and starting a “retool.’’ And in his message to the fans on Jan. 16, the Blueshirts’ president and general manager chose his words carefully.

“This will not be a rebuild,’’ he insisted. “This will be a retool built around our core players and prospects.’’

(A skeptic would point out that the Rangers’ core players, except for Adam Fox, are all at least 30, and aside from Gabe Perreault, they don’t have many prospects who appear to be almost NHL-ready.)

But calling this a “retool’’ rather than a “rebuild’’ implies it won’t be a long process. And right now, it’s hard to see how Drury will be able to turn things around quickly for these Rangers, who are likely to miss the playoffs for the second straight year.

Step 1 was to tell Artemi Panarin, who’s in the final year of his contract, that the Rangers don’t plan to re-sign him and will work with him to trade him somewhere he wishes to go.

Because Panarin has a full no-move clause, he can control that, and if he’s not open to going to more than a few places, the Rangers won’t have the leverage to demand much back for him.

One player who would figure to bring back a good return is Vincent Trocheck, a two-way center who plays on the power play and the penalty kill. He is winning 56.8% of his faceoffs, is on the U.S. Olympic team and has a manageable $5.625 million salary-cap hit for three more seasons after this one. That kind of player usually is very much in demand by contending teams at the trade deadline.

If Trocheck, 32, is traded, it will be because the Rangers are getting back a high draft pick, maybe a first-rounder, and/or a promising young player, which could help them in the not-too-distant future.

But if Drury trades Trocheck, you won’t be able to call this a “retool.’’ It will be a full-blown rebuild — and probably not a quick one, either.

Trocheck chose to sign with the Rangers four years ago as a free agent because this is where he and his family wanted to be. Hearing his name bandied about as a guy who might be shipped out doesn’t exactly make him happy.

“This is the first for me, really,’’ he said of seeing his name being floated in trade rumors. “I got traded one other time, when I was in Florida, to Carolina, and it was a lot less media involvement. It was kind of more out of the blue.’’

In a radio interview on Jan. 5, Madison Square Garden executive chairman James Dolan talked about how Drury and coach Mike Sullivan “are installing a new culture into the club, and that does not happen overnight.’’

Trocheck, considered a high-character guy, is an alternate captain and a childhood friend of J.T. Miller, Drury’s hand-picked captain. He is one of the players who is helping to set the culture Drury wants to create, so moving him could set back those efforts.

Everyone understands trading away Panarin. He’ll be 35 shortly after next season starts, so the Rangers probably do not want to commit big dollars and lots of years to him. Moving him at the deadline, even for a minimal return, would free up a truckload of cap space (although, with all of the other big-name stars who might have been free agents this summer — Connor McDavid et al — having signed extensions with their clubs, the biggest-name free agent this summer will be . . . Panarin).

But Panarin has led the Rangers in scoring every season since signing as a free agent in 2019. So with him off the roster, who will Drury be able to get to replace the offense he provides?

If Drury could beat out all of the other interested teams and swing a deal with the Dallas Stars to land Jason Robertson, who is 26, leads Dallas in goals with 30 and is set to be a restricted free agent this summer, then OK, that would be great. But if not, what is Plan B to make the Rangers better next season?

Imagine the Rangers with Panarin gone, and Trocheck gone too. That hardly sounds like a retool.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

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.