Upper St. Clair’s Vincent Trocheck finds new home with Rangers
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Vincent Trocheck remained on the ice fairly late for the New York Rangers’ morning skate Tuesday at PPG Paints Arena.
And for good reason.
He had to skate off the big home-cooked feast he devoured Monday.
A native of Upper St. Clair who maintains a home in Wexford, Trocheck invited teammates and team staffers to a dinner at his house that had a personal touch.
“My grandma cooked everybody a big Italian dinner,” Trocheck boasted. “So it was nice.”
The menu?
“Chicken (parmesan), pasta, steak pizzaiola, chicken cutlet, meatballs,” Trocheck said. “She made a big feast.”
Trocheck is still relatively new to the Rangers. This past offseason, he was an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his now 10-year career. And as a right-handed center who has a handful of 20-goal seasons on his resume, he was in demand.
The Rangers landed his services with a seven-year contract that carries a grosso salary cap hit of $5.625 million.
Having played for only the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes previously, navigating the waters of unrestricted free agency was an uncertain experience for him.
“It was weird,” Trocheck said. “I’ve been on two teams (before) in my career. You know what you’re getting every time. Every summer, you’re just working to get ready for the season with the team that you’ve been with. Obviously, having to decide and pick the right fit for me was a little nerve-racking and anxious. But I thought I found a good fit.”
That fit has been evident through his production. Primarily serving as a second- or third-line center and working on the Rangers’ top power-play unit, the 29-year-old Trocheck is the team’s fourth-leading scorer with 27 points (11 goals, 16 assists) in 34 games. He assisted on both goals in the Rangers’ 3-2 loss to the Penguins on Tuesday.
What did he like about the Rangers as they courted him?
“Played against them in the playoffs last year (as a member of the Hurricanes), they were an extremely exciting team to play against,” Trocheck said. “A lot of skill, a lot of young skill. I felt they’d be a good fit in the sense that they’d be good for a long time. And, obviously, winning is something that I really want to do. Having (Gerard Gallant) as a coach — had him in Florida — was another big sell. Loved him when I had him in Florida. Him being here made things easier for comfortability.”
Gallant reciprocated that mutual admiration.
“I had him quite a while ago in Florida and really liked him then,” Gallant said. “He’s a competitive guy. He works hard. He plays a complete game for us. Real good in faceoffs. He’s done a real good job with our team for a new guy coming in and trying to get settled in with different linemates and playing with different people quite a bit here in the first 30 games. He’s done a good job. Really like him.”
In addition to his hospitality as well as his grandmother’s cooking, Trocheck’s competitive nature has endeared him to his new teammates.
“He’s been awesome,” Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller said. “He brings a little bit of everything. He’s got the gritty part of his game. He’s got the skill. He’s not the biggest guy, but he’s not afraid to throw around his body and step up in the corners with the bigger guys. He kind of has that dog in him where he’ll fight for you. That’s one of biggest things I’ve noticed about (Trocheck) being on the team so far.”
Having grown up watching the likes of Penguins icons Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr do battle with Rangers stars such as Mark Messier and Brian Leetch, Trocheck got his first direct experience in the rivalry between the Rangers and Penguins on Tuesday.