Vincent Trocheck didn’t hide how strange the last two years felt in New York.
The former Rangers center, now with the Utah Mammoth after being traded this summer, said the group that reached the 2024 Eastern Conference Final was essentially dismantled piece by piece after that run ended in a six-game loss to the Florida Panthers. New York had just finished the best regular season in franchise history, winning the Presidents’ Trophy and setting team records with 55 wins and 114 points. But what followed, Trocheck said, was a complete shakeup.
“The last two years were obviously really tough. Not what we expected,” Trocheck said this week on the Morning Cuppa’ Hockey podcast.
“I think the whole team kind of got uprooted the last two years from the team that won the Presidents’ Trophy in ’24. That’s never something you’re expecting, when you go from winning a Presidents’ Trophy to the Eastern Conference Final, to two years later having I think it’s like four guys remaining on the roster.”
The roster turnover has been dramatic. Six players from the Rangers’ Game 6 lineup against Florida are still with the team: Igor Shesterkin, Adam Fox, Braden Schneider, Mika Zibanejad, Alexis Lafreniere and Will Cuylle. Matt Rempe was a healthy scratch that day and remains on the current roster as well.
Trocheck was right in the middle of it all. He posted 20 points - eight goals and 12 assists - in 16 games during the 2024 postseason, leading the Rangers and finishing ninth in the League. Two years later, with three seasons still left on his contract, he’s part of the long list of players moved out under general manager Chris Drury.
For Trocheck, the writing was on the wall once Drury sent a letter to fans in January laying out a retool and signaling that some familiar faces could be on the move. Artemi Panarin was dealt to the Los Angeles Kings in February, and Trocheck quickly became another likely trade candidate because of his limited no-movement protection and his $5.625 million cap hit.
Drury couldn’t land the deal he wanted before the March 6 deadline, so Trocheck stayed through the end of the season. Even then, the 33-year-old center understood his time in New York was coming to a close.
“The whole trade rumors, they happen, I’ve been part of them before,” Trocheck shared. “It was a little stressful, but once the trade deadline was over and I knew I wasn’t getting moved - at least until the end of the year - it was able to be comfortable again and just enjoy the time that I had in New York, and just kind of treat it like it was my last run, my last few months there in New York.”
Trocheck also reflected on what it meant to play in New York, saying the pressure is real but that he embraced it.
“It was such a rollercoaster,” Trocheck said of his Rangers tenure. “I think playing in a big market like New York is definitely not for everyone.
It does take a lot of pressure and stress to deal with how much is expected from you. I think, for me, it was something I embraced and enjoyed to the fullest every year, even when we having a rough year.”
Now he’s headed to Salt Lake City and what he called a very “family-friendly” Mammoth organization that he believes is on the rise. Still, New York clearly left its mark.
“[Our children] grew up in New York. It’s definitely a home for us,” he said.
“It’s always going to hold a special place in our hearts. Very blessed to have had the opportunity to play there.”
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