After two weeks of great hockey, we have to watch the Rangers for 25 more games before this season comes to an end. The games are an afterthought right now, as the Rangers are in the midst of a retool and are selling off assets to get younger and faster. Artemi Panarin is gone, and it seems Vincent Trocheck is next. It seems he will be in the lineup tonight, but should the Rangers sit Vincent Trocheck for trade purposes? He just had a solid Olympics and was part of a perfect penalty kill for Team USA and managed to stay healthy while doing it.
If they sit Vincent Trocheck, do they hurt his trade value?
Chris Drury has a habit of shooting himself in the foot and getting in his own way. He forced the Pavel Buchnevich trade without fielding other offers. He got tunnel vision on Will Borgen in the Kaapo Kakko trade. He sent the retool letter and forced the Panarin trade before the Olympics, impacting trade returns.
If the Rangers sit Vincent Trocheck, would that again signal to the league that he is 100% getting moved and impact offers from other teams? The thought process is that if the Rangers sit Vincent Trocheck, the Rangers become committed to trading him, and teams would submit lesser offers due to perceived lost leverage.
In Panarin’s case, this is exactly what happened. However Panarin had a full no-move clause and could dictate his trade destination. Trocheck has a 12 team no-trade list, which certainly helps the Rangers find more suitors. If the Rangers sit Vincent Trocheck, the suitors that are in on him–rumored to be at least Minnesota and Detroit, though Colorado just cleared a bunch of cap space–don’t change and are still competing with each other to land the center.
More teams involved lessens this risk.
Injury risk
The obvious reason why the Rangers would sit Vincent Trocheck is the injury risk. Trocheck isn’t exactly injury prone, but hockey is hockey and one awkward hit can lead to bad injuries. Trocheck still plays significant minutes for the Rangers and is on the wrong side of 30, so in theory this is a bigger risk than many want to admit.
I’d put injury risk as a bigger concern than the trade package risk, which would favor sitting Trocheck.
Does it really matter at this point?
Whether the Rangers decide to sit Vincent Trocheck or not likely doesn’t have much of an impact anymore. The Rangers have a week (four games) until the trade deadline. Sitting him at this point won’t have any impact to his trade value and would, if anything, protect him from injury.
But Trocheck is also coming off a gold medal win and is one of three Rangers who consistently played throughout the three week break. There’s something to be said for rust and putting the best team out there. Remember, the players don’t tank, they play to win.
There’s no wrong answer here, but if it were me, I’d sit Vincent Trocheck. Bubble wrap him to ensure the best possible return.
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