When the Rangers added Vincent Trocheck to a monster deal last offseason, the reaction was split. The contract was rough, as the flat cap required the Rangers (and other teams throughout this period) to offer more years and no move protection in exchange for a lesser cap hit. Still, Trocheck was viewed as a luxury signing, as Filip Chytil seemed like the logical choice for 2C. Opinion aside on the signing, the Rangers needed Trocheck to solidify the club down the middle. And solidify the center position he did.
Feelings on Chytil over Trocheck don’t matter at the moment, as the Rangers are one of the more dangerous teams in the league with both in the middle six behind Mika Zibanejad. It’s not an elite group of centers, but it’s very strong. Trocheck’s 22 goals, 42 assists, and 64 points all ranked 4th on the Rangers this past season. His 9-8-17 on the powerplay pads the stats a bit, but not nearly as much as you might think. He did all that while winning 56% of his faceoffs, by far the best result in the dot in recent memory.
Not bad for $5.625 million, even if he has another 6 years left on the contract.
Individually (left chart), Trocheck’s impacts were solid, and it leaves some interesting room for improvement too. He drove offense, so he wasn’t just a ride along with Artemi Panarin. He also was no slouch defensively, and was at least above average in his defensive metrics. But when you add in the full team impact (right chart), it looks like his offense outproduced his impact on the ice. This is not a straight forward evaluation, just some food for thought.
Charts from Evolving-Hockey.
Trocheck was brought in to stabilize the center position, and he did just that. His scoring stats were great, his impacts were fine, and his two way/three zone play was good. His style of play is something the Rangers need as well, adding balance to the lineup. His contract is rough, but we are evaluating his play on the ice, not his contract.
With Peter Laviolette at the helm, expect Trocheck to have a boost in his defensive numbers with more structure. It will be interesting to see where he lands in the lineup as well. There are strong cases to keep him with Panarin, since it worked already. There’s also a strong case to move Filip Chytil up in the lineup with Panarin for sheltered offensive zone starts, leaving Trocheck as the 3C in a usual balanced deployment role.
There’s no wrong answer here, as long as whatever it comes to, the Rangers win.
Grade: A
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