MTPS: What's the Low Down with Tro Down?
With Vincent Trocheck out there are lots of good options and one really bad one available to the Rangers. Which one do you think they'll choose?
On Saturday, the New York Rangers announced that second line center (and unindicted co-conspirator for last year's poop show of a season) Vincent Trocheck is week-to-week with a totally detailed "upper-body" injury. Now, we can spend time debating the nature of the injury (cough probably a concussion cough), but whatever the injury actually is (cough I say a concussion because if it was anything else I can almost guarantee that the player would be playing through it where concussion protocol is mandated by the NHL cough) the fact is that Trocheck is going to miss some games.
As I've noted a few times, the Rangers are terribly, horribly, very badly thin at center (seriously Joe, how do you not get a Kate Moss reference?), so the loss of Trocheck is far from ideal. But they're also not entirely without options.
Before the season started I was pushing for Noah Laba to actually be elevated to Trocheck's spot on the second line. Why? Well, partially it's because of how I feel about Vincent Trocheck. Part of it is also that I think that Laba has a higher ceiling than third line center. He has size, strength, better-than-average speed, and has showed some really good hockey sense in the offensive zone. The best place for him (or really any player) to realize their offensive potential is on a line with Artemi Panarin. Just look at the offensive bump playing with Panarin provided for Ryan Strome and Vincent Trocheck.
