Rangers hold out Vincent Trocheck, Sam Carrick for 'roster management'
Rangers' Sam Carrick, left, and Vincent Trocheck. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
At the Rangers’ optional morning skate at their Westchester County practice facility Thursday before their game at the Garden against the Maple Leafs, coach Mike Sullivan was asked if he knew whether Vincent Trocheck would be in the lineup or held out for “roster management.’’
“Right now, everybody’s a game-time decision,’’ he said.
About eight hours later, as the Rangers took the ice for warmups, the question on everyone’s mind was answered: Trocheck and fourth-line center Sam Carrick did not come out for warmups and the Rangers announced that neither would play in the team’s final game before the NHL trade deadline.
The Maple Leafs, who, like the Rangers, are sellers at the deadline, held out three players — defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and forwards Bobby McMann and Scott Laughton — for the second straight night. Toronto traded bottom-six center Nicolas Roy to Colorado earlier in the day.
Holding out Trocheck and Carrick suggested the Rangers will be working on trading both before Friday’s 3 p.m. deadline. After the game, NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman reported the Rangers were working on a deal to send Carrick to Buffalo.
Without the two veterans, the Rangers managed to rally after giving up a goal 13 seconds into the game. They fell behind twice but rallied for a 6-2 victory. It was their first regulation win at the Garden since Nov. 24, but after the game, the locker room didn’t seem like all that happy a place.
“Everyone kind of saw it coming with the letter [from general manager Chris Drury on Jan. 16, announcing the franchise would undergo a “retool’’] and everything,’’ said Will Cuylle, who lived with Trocheck and his family during his rookie year two seasons ago. “But I guess now that it’s here, it’s kind of more real, seeing guys get traded and stuff.’’
Cuylle, who scored two goals Thursday, appeared to be near tears when he was asked what Trocheck means to him.
“He was the one that kind of took me in under his wing,’’ Cuylle said. “He’s been great to me my whole career here and it’s just tough to see him go, if he goes.’’
Sullivan was asked what he and Drury told Trocheck and Carrick when they informed them of the decision to hold them out.
“We tell them the truth,’’ he said. “We’re honest with them. They deserve that. Obviously, it’s not an easy circumstance for those guys. They’re great teammates. You know, these guys have been a big part of this team this year and years past . . . We’re doing our very best to try to handle it the right way.’’
Trocheck and Carrick are desired commodities for playoff-contending teams because they are righthanded-shooting centers who kill penalties and win faceoffs (Trocheck is winning 57.2% and Carrick 53.9% this season). Trocheck also plays on the power play. Carrick also can fight.
The Rangers started their retool by trading defenseman Carson Soucy to the Islanders on Jan. 26 and Artemi Panarin to the Kings on Feb. 4. Both of those players, though, were in the final year of their contracts and the Rangers had decided not to re-sign them. It made sense to trade them rather than lose them for nothing over the summer if they left as free agents.
Trocheck, 32, and Carrick, 34, are different because they are not about to be free agents. Carrick has a year left on his contract, at a $1 million cap hit, and Trocheck has three more years after this one at a very reasonable salary cap number of $5.625 million.
Trocheck, an alternate captain who just helped Sullivan and Team USA win the Olympic gold medal, is expected to fetch a good return if the Rangers do trade him, which might be the only reason to move him.
Even with one of his top suitors, Minnesota, reportedly dropping out of the chase and another, Colorado, having traded for Roy early Thursday, several teams still are thought to be in the hunt for him. But given that Roy brought back two draft picks, one a first-rounder, for Toronto, Drury no doubt is seeking a lot.
Notes & quotes: Forward Adam Edstrom returned to the lineup after missing 33 games with a lower-body injury . . . Jonny Brodzinski skated in Trocheck’s spot on the second line and Juuso Parssinen took Carrick’s spot on the fourth line between Edstrom and Hartford call-up Jaroslav Chmelar . . . Chmelar scored his first NHL goal at 10:27 of the third to give the Rangers a 4-2 lead . . . Vladislav Gavrikov (on the power play), Alexis Lafreniere and Mika Zibanejad had the other goals. Cuylle scored his second goal into an empty net.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
