MTPS: Montre-All In on a Player Who is Tro-Checked Out

Friends, we live in an era of reboots.

2025 saw a host of films trying to relaunch iconic franchises. Whether it was Glenn Powell trying to bring a new twist to Arnold Schwarzenegger's Running Man, or James Corenswet trying to live up to the Superman standard set by Christopher Reeve, the ideas may not have been fresh or new, but they were designed to be entertaining and improve on previous iterations.

Some of them were good. And some were Jurassic World: Rebirth levels of horrible.

The trend is not constrained to movies.

We've had reboots of The Equalizer (both as movies and a television show), Battlestar Galactica, Magnum P.I., and Knight Rider featuring Val Kilmer replacing Mr. Feeney as the voice of K.I.T.T. (No, really, Mr. Feeney from Boy Meets World was the voice of the car in Knight Rider, look it up.)

In that spirit, I'm doing a MTPS reboot, too—this one starring Vincent Trocheck.

I've already traded Trocheck to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Minnesota Wild, and even mentioned possible deals with the Utah Mammoth and Tampa Bay Lightning. So, one more won't hurt. I look at it the same way Marvel looks at Fantastic Four movies: At one point, one of them may not suck.

Look, I've had my issues with Vincent Trocheck, and I wholly agree with what Joe said about him last week. Here's a guy who was brought in to be part of a leadership group that was going to change the culture here, and has instead been one of the worst offenders. A guy who is not only not embarrassed by what has transpired here, but thinks it's something that's funny to be joking about.

His defenders will say (and have said) that he's heard the rumors that he's going to be traded and he's just trying to have some fun with them. OK, that's fair. But the reason the trade rumors are swirling is because the New York Rangers have been a massive disappointment and he's a big part of the reason why. Instead of joking around about it maybe take some responsibility for it.

To be fair, I've never been a fan of Vincent Trocheck—not as a member of the Florida Panthers or the Carolina Hurricanes. I wasn't a huge fan of his signing, but I completely understood it. Ryan Strome was an unrestricted free agent, Filip Chytil was only 22 and just showing flashes of being a top six option, but injuries were a problem for him, even back then. With the flameouts of Brett Howden and Lias Andersson, the organization needed stability at the dot behind Mika Zibanejad. Trocheck made a ton of sense.

It just didn't work out.

Because of injuries to Chytil and Artemi Panarin's inability to mesh with Zibanejad, Trocheck was pressed into duty as the team's second line center. In the run up to winning the President's Cup in 2023-24, it worked well. For a time. In the last couple of seasons Trocheck's efficacy has waned, he's dealt with some injuries, and, quite frankly, he seems to get extra credit for what he says rather than what he does. What's more, whether it's because he's annoyed by the losing or about being passed over for the captaincy, he's now contributing to the toxicity that is infecting the organization.

Whatever.

The good news is that my feelings, your feelings, Joe's feelings—they don't matter. What matters is that the perception from people around the NHL is that Vincent Trocheck is one of "those guys." You know what "those guys" are, right? The kind of veteran roleplayer who NHL general managers love. He's a proven playoff performer and the kind of roleplayer who, on a good team, fits nicely on your third line and will do the dirty work.

And, look, that's probably still true. I'm sure that the last 18 months have weighed on everyone in that room and some are handling it differently/better than others. Maybe if Trocheck is sent to a team where he slide into the same role he had in Carolina, he will once again be the person he was when he first got here.

So, I know what you're thinking...

Here we go:

Chris Johnston and James Mirtle of The Athletic played matchmaker for some of the players likely to be on the move before the Trade Deadline. Here's what Mirtle had to say about Vincent Trocheck:

The Canadiens’ biggest hole all season has been down the middle, and it’s going to be a battle at the deadline for the limited options who can fill the 2C role on a contender. Even at 32, Trocheck certainly fits that description, and the fact he comes with some term at a reasonable cap hit will help the Habs bridge the gap as their youth movement progresses.

Trocheck isn’t the biggest player, but he’s crafty and can play in all situations, including on a top power-play unit as a high-end playmaker. He would also be able to take some of the tough matchup load off Nick Suzuki and serve as a strong mentor for Ivan Demidov.

Trocheck is American, has a limited no-trade clause and has never played in Canada, but Montreal is an exciting, rising team he could chase a Cup with, so this could be win-win.

As Mirtle points out, there are some obstacles here. Trocheck has a limited no-trade clause and, while we don't know which teams are on that list, it's entirely possible that the Canadian teams are all on it. Montreal is also tight against the salary cap with only about $1 million in cap space to spare. Additionally, the Jeff Gorton/New York Rangers factor shouldn't be wholly discounted, either.

For now though, lets assume Gorton will deal with the Rangers and that Trocheck would be amenable to playing north of the border. What could a trade look like?