How Rangers GM can jumpstart retool with Vincent Trocheck trade
There is a not-so-small group of New York Rangers fans who are unwilling to forgive Chris Drury for his very first major trade as general manager, that deal coloring everything else he’s done in his five-plus years at the helm.
But ahead of the March 6 trade deadline this season, Drury has an opportunity to possibly win those angry fans over, not to mention vastly improve his last-place team.
With the Rangers in a formally-stated “retool,” Drury faces what could prove to be his most critical moment in charge of personnel for the team he once captained. In Vincent Trocheck, the Rangers hold what might be the most appealing trade deadline chip in the NHL this season. Consequently, Drury and the Rangers must extract a return commensurate with the veteran center’s value, one that will go a long way to set up the roster for a quick return to sustained contention.
Trocheck is coveted by nearly every Stanley Cup contender. He’s a solid 200-foot player, one who excels on both specialty teams, and is at his best on the big stage. Tough, versatile, exceptional at the face-off dot and playing a premium position, the Rangers cannot afford to trade Trocheck on the cheap – and on the contrary, must maximize their return.
Chris Drury can’t afford a Pavel Buchnevich-like trade miss with Vincent Trocheck
That, of course, is not what happened July 23, 2021, when Drury, in his first full season at the personnel controls, moved out home-grown winger Pavel Buchnevich in a cost-saving trade with the St. Louis Blues. The Rangers got back bottom-six forward Sammy Blais and a second-round draft pick in a disastrous deal that got worse by the year. Buchnevich continued his development and grew into an all-situations force in the Gateway City, scoring at a point-per-game pace in his first two seasons there, and is closing in on 200 goals and 500 points in the NHL.
Blais? Yeah, he didn’t exactly star on Broadway over 54 games played. However, the injury-plagued forward was part of a package in a 2023 trade-deadline deal with the Blues for Vladimir Tarasenko and Niko Mikkola.
The Buchnevich trade caused more than a few to immediately and permanently lose trust in the new GM, and Drury’s recent track record hasn’t done anything to change that sentiment. If he reaps a windfall for Trocheck, reconciliation might follow. For that to happen, however, Drury must get back a least one high-end, NHL-ready prospect, and preferably more – not just first-round picks that are sure to be in the 20s and 30s range.
The comp that keeps coming up amid the Trocheck speculation is the Brock Nelson trade before the 2025 deadline. To review, the New York Islanders played that one perfectly last year, dealing the center to the Colorado Avalanche for top center prospect Calum Ritchie, a first-round pick, a third-round pick and defenseman Oliver Kylington, who was quickly sent to the Anaheim Ducks for future considerations.
While that sounds awfully good, there’s a case to be made that Trocheck is even more valuable than Nelson, his U.S. gold medal teammate and linemate at the Olympics. Not only has Trocheck averaged 0.73 points per game in his career to Nelson’s 0.65, Trocheck isn’t a rental like Nelson was at the time. With three more seasons at a very reasonable $5.625 million salary-cap hit remaining after this one, the Rangers are selling a 32-year-old pivot who can fill the second-line center spot for a championship-contending team not just this spring, but going forward. Drury needs to approach a potential trade of Trocheck in just that way.
The preferred element in any return, as it was for the Islanders with Nelson, should be a young center. To that end, the Minnesota Wild appear to be the most likely destination, and perhaps best fit, for Trocheck at this point. They have an acute need for a 2C and a general manager in Bill Guerin who selected Trocheck for both the United States team at the Four Nations Faceoff in 2025 and the 2026 Olympic Team, when Trocheck enhanced his value with a strong performance in the stirring U.S. run to the gold medal last week in Milan
Additionally, Trocheck reportedly does not have the Wild on his 12-team no-trade list.
Minnesota also has the assets to get such a trade done. In Danila Yurov and Charlie Stramel – first-round picks in 2022 and 2023, respectively – the Wild can offer a young center as the starting point for any deal. Yurov is having an encouraging rookie season with Minnesota, recording 22 points in 51 games, while the huge Stramel (6-foot-3, 215 pounds) is in the midst of a breakout campaign at Michigan State with 40 points (19 goals, 21 assists) in 29 games.
Though the Wild don’t have their first or second-rounder this year, they can offer a first in 2027 and a third in 2026. Those picks, along with Yurov or Stramel, should be the minimum a Minnesota team that has its sights set on the Stanley Cup should have to send back to the Rangers. Trocheck would slot perfectly into the 2C spot behind Joel Eriksson Ek, allowing the Wild to move Ryan Hartman to the 3C or back to the wing, where he’s a more natural fit.
Hurricanes, Red Wings also lurk as strong trade partners for Vincent Trocheck
The Carolina Hurricanes could be the second-most likely destination for Trocheck – if Drury is willing to send him to a Metropolitan Division rival, and the Canes aren’t on the no-trade list. The Hurricanes don’t have an appealing young center option to trade for Trocheck, who played for them previously from 2020-22, but does have four first-rounders in the next three drafts that could be used in part to acquire a young pivot next offseason.
Carolina, with perhaps its best shot to advance to the Stanley Cup Final in a somewhat down season for the Eastern Conference, has loads of cap space and needs a 2C to play between No. 1 Sebastian Aho and 3C Jordan Staal. While youngster Logan Stankoven handled that spot this season, he’s probably better suited to be on the wing at this stage of his career.
Along with draft choices, the Rangers should also ask for 24-year-old defenseman Alexander Nikishin, who’s recorded 22 points in 56 games and would greatly strengthen the left side of the blue line. Carolina might not want to trade him, but Nikishin is the kind of coveted young asset Drury must demand from contenders who are desperate for help down the middle.
After all, the Rangers don’t have to trade Trocheck. Though it behooves them to do so before the veteran’s on-ice play dips.
Unlike with Buchnevich, or more recently when the Rangers traded Artemi Panarin to the Los Angeles Kings, Drury has significant leverage in any possible Trocheck deal.
However, a trade does feel more likely than not.
“From what I was told, I think both sides (player and team) know this is real and are willing to work with each other if it makes sense,” an NHL source told RG’s James Murphy.
The Detroit Red Wings might also be after Trocheck. Up-and-coming Detroit is firmly in playoff position, sitting third in the Atlantic Division, and is yet another team that very much needs a second-line center. With Trocheck’s Olympic teammate Dylan Larkin manning the middle on the top line, adding Trocheck’s addition would allow Andrew Copp to slide down to the third line, where he’s better suited.
The Red Wings have a pair of young forwards in center Marco Kasper (No. 8 overall pick in 2022) and winger Michael Brandsegg-Nygard (No. 15 in 2023) as trade targets, and they also possess essentially all of their high-round picks over the next three years. Detroit also has the salary cap space to accommodate Trocheck’s contract.
There are sure to be some dark-horse teams in the running for Trocheck, too. Drury can go a long way toward getting back in the faithful’s good graces by ironically trading away one of the best free-agent additions of his tenure.
More importantly, he must leverage this opportunity to set the Rangers up with NHL-ready young talent that the roster so desperately craves – while perhaps keeping his word that the Blueshirts are in fact just retooling and don’t actually need to rebuild.
