Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet tweeted that the New York Rangers are weighing several options when it comes to defenseman Jacob Trouba. The team would like to trade their captain and have already said he won’t play this evening, but Trouba does hold a modified no-trade clause and can block a trade to certain teams. Friedman indicates that if Trouba does not waive his no-trade the Rangers have said that they will waive the 30-year-old.
Friedman acknowledges in his tweet that New York is playing “Hardball” with Trouba, but it is not an unprecedented situation and has happened before. Nothing is confirmed at this point, but it does appear that Trouba will be on the move one way or another in the coming days.
Trouba has one year left on his contract after this season with a cap hit of $8MM. However, he is owed just $6MM in salary for next season. The Rochester, Michigan native has dressed in 24 games this year, posting just six assists. He has averaged exactly 20 minutes in ice time per game and has struggled at even strength, particularly in the possession department, where his CF% is just 45.5%.
Trouba’s play has been an issue for several years now but became a major story in last year’s playoffs when he found himself demoted to the third pairing and was exposed as a liability despite being given sheltered minutes.
In a corresponding story, the New York Rangers announced that they’ve recalled defenseman Victor Mancini from the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League. Mancini has dressed in ten NHL games this season for the Rangers, tallying a goal and three assists. The 22-year-old recorded his first NHL goal earlier this year against the Detroit Red Wings.
In the AHL, Mancini has posted two goals and three assists in six games and is coming off a three-point game on Wednesday night against Bridgeport.
I’m surprised that Trouba wasn’t put on the 4-nations roster. “Tongue in cheek”
Show Trouba the door
Trouba going to Disneyland?
Ducks would take him but it would cost the rangers a top prospect and a few very, very good future draft picks.
Nailed it!
Getting him off the books would be nice, but a top prospect would probably need to go along with him, or a couple of 1st rounders. Waiving him is most likely going to be the outcome.
Typical Rangers move to start to blame players they had to have (see Shatenkirk) and when they aren’t as good in Ranger blue they want to dump them. The Rangers have and will always be Losers. Always have to have the Star player of which there are too many to name and never win anything. The only exception was Messier in ’94, but they also had to bring in half the Edmonton Oilers from the ’80’s to win it. I always love Ranger turmoil and remind Ranger fans they’ve won ONE CUP in 85 years and counting.
Thanks, but we knew that already.
I blame ownership. The GMs come and go but there’s always Dolan (at least since the Rangers won the Cup). The man perpetually ruins the Knicks and the Rangers by making outrageous demands of the people he hires to run the teams. He interferes too much with their operations. Attempts to rebuild the team from the ground up with draft picks always gets short-circuited because the man has no patience. As soon as something shiny comes on the market, he pressures the FO to get the guy, thus throwing a monkey wrench into the rebuild process.
I don’t agree because the Rangers have operated this way long before Dolan was the owner. They have always had to have the big star players, and free agents to keep MSG full of fans. Dolan always said he didn’t know hockey and let Smith and Sather run the show. Smith was a very good GM. He probably could have won one more cup, but he wasn’t able to maintain it. Sather was brought in by Dolan because of his record in Edmonton. How did that work out? Sather was exposed to show that he wasn’t the same GM here as he was in Edmonton. Drury assembled this team and handed out all these contracts. All teams go through dry spells at some point in the season. Smart GM’s know when to panic and when not to. You can’t panic in November. A panic move is trading Brad Park, and Jean Ratelle, for Phil Esposito, and Carol Vadnais. It makes headlines but doesn’t make you a better team.
How far back do you want to go? Dolan was CEO of Cablevision when they bought the team right after Rangers won the Cup.
Ah yes, trading away Brad Park and Jean Ratelle. Probably one of the worst trades this team ever did.
But then you don’t get that Espo-Greschner-Duguay disco single!
I hope they wave him and nobody picks him up, so the Rags can’t recoup as much cap space as they’re hoping for.
Suprised Trotz hasn’t moved on this yet. Hehe.
Not a big Trouba fan. But If you wanted proof it is business. He was important to name Captain.