MTPS: A Wild Time for Tro to Go?
The Hughes blockbuster may have cracked open a surprising door: a real, functional Trocheck trade fit. Is this the moment for the Rangers to reset their timeline?
On the heels of the wild (pun very much intended) trade of Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks to the Minnesota Wild, is the door now open for a trade of Vincent Trocheck?
I do not wholly disagree with what Joe and Eric said on the podcast last week. I, too, think a trade of Vincent Trocheck both would help reset the timeline of a contender that's not built to contend, and is highly unlikely to happen. Having said that, kind of a lot has happened since Joe and Eric talked about that last week. The Rangers—already mired in the murky middle—have lost some ugly games, including against a hapless Vancouver Canucks team, and seem like they have more holes (phrasing) than they have resources to fill them.
Quinn Hughes, a player who (like Adam Fox) is one of the very best defensemen in the National Hockey League, was traded to Minnesota for a package that included Marco Rossi, Liam Ohgren, Zeev Buium, and a first round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. The trade sets Bill Guerin's team up as a definite force in the Western Conference.
Well, sort of.
Look, when you're projecting a defensive core of:
Quinn Hughes - Brock Faber
Jonas Brodin - Jared Spurgeon
*Jacob Middleton - David Jireck
*currently injured
...you've got something to work with there. The problem, dear friends, is down the middle.
With Rossi gone, the Wild's four projected centers are: Joel Eriksson-Ek, Danila Yurov, Ryan Hartman, and Nico Sturm. Those four have combined for 18 goals and 51 points in 103 combined games this season. For a team that now has gone all in on this season, well...
Enter Vincent Trocheck.
Vin-sanity has recorded five goals and 10 assists in 21 games played so far this season. He would, quite easily, be the second best center on Minnesota's roster right now and allow Ryan Hartman to slot back to his more natural wing position, where they currently have momentary former New York Ranger Nicholas Aube-Kubel penciled into the lineup.
Yes, Trocheck's contract carries an additional three years following this one. But if you're Bill Guerin, do you care? Your core of Brock Faber, Eriksson-Ek, Filip Gustavsson, Matthew Boldy, and Kirill Kaprizov are all locked up with money in the form of Mats Zucarello and Vladamir Tarasenko's contracts coming off the books at season's end. Still, time is ticking away.
Hughes is (currently) only guaranteed to be with the team for the next 18 months. Brodin, Spurgeon, Middleton, and Marcus Foligno are all getting up there in age. This is a win now team and, if Trocheck—as dependable a playoff skater as there is and good team guy—can help them win now, it's probably a move worth making for Guerin. There's also a trusted relationship there as Guerin is the general manager of Team USA and was instrumental in selecting Trocheck to the Four Nations team last year.
Beyond those reasons, there is this: NHL insiders have listed Ryan Strome and Phillip Danault as being two highly coveted trade targets. Seriously. I'm not joking. The two of them have played a combined 44 games and have exactly one more goal than I do. They both make roughly the same amount of money as Trocheck and are under contract for another season. Ryan O'Reilly and Braden Schenn have been on the market for over a year now and no one has wanted either of them, and for good reason. They're also older players who have not been nearly as successful recently as Trocheck has and carry the same concerns about cost and term.
That brings us to...
