Vincent Trocheck’s game fitting in well with New York Rangers’ new system

By Arthur Staple, The Athletic

EDMONTON — If Vincent Trocheck were to think back to the end of last season, when he finished the year centering two of the best NHL players of the last decade in Artemi Panarin and Patrick Kane, he might think a lot has changed for him in his short time as a New York Ranger.

He is not that sort of guy, though. As Trocheck has made his way to his 11th NHL season — and now, with Peter Laviolette, his 10th coach — Trocheck keeps his eyes and his mind on the task at hand. So instead of being on the second line with one surefire Hall of Famer and another possibly headed to the Hall, he’s on the so-called third line between a very capable rookie in Will Cuylle and a slowing veteran in his 17th season in Blake Wheeler.

Here’s the thing though: Trocheck’s importance to the coach hasn’t changed at all. It was Gerard Gallant a season ago who had Trocheck as a more offense-focused center at even strength. Laviolette has him now as a more checking-focused center at even strength, yet Trocheck is still, through six games, second among Rangers forwards in even-strength ice time (behind Panarin, same as last season) and actually leads Rangers forwards in overall ice time.

“I know everybody gets caught up in combinations and all that, but my role is pretty much the same as it was last year,” Trocheck said. “There’s obviously some different styles of play (in my linemates) and you’ve maybe got to play a little different, but we’re all going out there to do the same thing in this system. There’s a little more detail to it.”

So you may not see big scoring numbers from Trocheck this season if he’s not playing with Panarin. But you will see him have an impact, as he has in the first two games of this road trip.

There he was on Tuesday in Calgary, earning more even-strength ice time than any Rangers forward. He won eight of 13 faceoffs, which improved his win percentage to 59.2. He took a couple of overzealous slashing penalties, one of which was a stick-on-stick whack you see 50 times a game. There was a huge hit on Brian Dumoulin in Seattle three nights earlier that prompted an off-the-draw fight challenge from Jared McCann that Trocheck settled quickly.

These aren’t highlight-reel goals and assists, but the Rangers have two scoring lines for that. And Trocheck does get his time with the top power-play unit. He’s leaning into the pesky, edgy part of his game. He’s the sort of versatile center coaches love and Laviolette is no different.

“He was one of our best forwards in camp,” Laviolette said. “I think everyone plays the game a little different — Troch plays it different than (Nick) Bonino, a little different than Mika (Zibanejad). So I think there’s an identity to his game. He comes on for faceoffs, for the power play or to kill penalties and he’s done a really good job.”

Perhaps you feel this isn’t a role for a player who was the centerpiece of Chris Drury’s 2022 offseason, the one the Rangers GM chose over in-house options Ryan Strome and Andrew Copp. The one to whom Drury gave seven years at a $5.625 million cap hit when Strome would have taken 5×5 and Copp something similar. So we can all agree and quote Lou Lamoriello, who said famously last year of Bo Horvat’s extension: “It’s too long and for too much money.”

What’s done is done. Whoever the Rangers added at center would have, in a perfect scenario, ceded the spot beside Panarin to Filip Chytil at some point — Chytil staying in a 12-minute-a-night role does no one any favors. Trocheck is completely unbothered by the prospect of not coming close to his 22-42-64 season in 2022-23, one that could have been even better had he not scored 8.56 goals below expectation at even strength, the fourth-worst GSAx number in the league (courtesy Clear Sight Hockey).

Chytil leads the Rangers with six assists, five in the last two games. The Panarin-Chytil-Alexis Lafrenière line has had the highest highs of any Ranger trio to date this season, with the Zibanejad-centered top line playing effectively though not finishing well as of yet. Trocheck is where he should be in this lineup at the moment.

So far, Trocheck has one nice assist on Cuylle’s first NHL goal and a power-play deflection for the winner against the Arizona Coyotes last week. His line as a whole has been just OK — Trocheck has acquitted himself well at five-on-five and his chemistry with the hardworking Cuylle is growing but Wheeler is stuck in the starting blocks in his first six games as a Ranger. One wonders if younger, fresher legs might work on the right side — either with Jimmy Vesey getting a look or, down the road, Brennan Othmann getting a promotion from Hartford.

Trocheck had a strong affinity for Gallant, who coached him in his early NHL years in Florida. But the demands of a Laviolette-led team suit a player like Trocheck well.

“Structure suits everybody well,” he said. “When you don’t have structure you’re not that hard to play against. We’re all going out there with the same mindset — Bread’s gotta (neutral-zone) lock, I have to lock when I’m out there. That’s the system. I think it’s why we’re playing well so far.”