We don’t know much about the Vincent Trocheck injury, only that he left last night’s win with an upper body injury and the team is “still evaluating” the severity. The Rangers finished the win last night with Mika Zibanejad, JT Miller, and Noah Laba rotating at center on the top three lines, while the fourth line remained relatively intact. While the good news is the Rangers can weather a short term Vincent Trocheck injury, a longer term injury could get tricky.
Few internal options to manage a long term Vincent Trocheck injury
The concern with a long term Vincent Trocheck injury is that the Rangers don’t have many internal options to weather the storm. The Blueshirts only have two options right now, and neither is appetizing. They can move Zibanejad to center, playing with Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere, which would create a hole at 1RW. The other option is to shift Laba up to 2C with Panarin and Lafreniere while dressing Juuso Parssinen as the 3C and reuniting the vegetable line (Conor Sheary, Taylor Raddysh).
Neither option is without its flaws. Shifting Zibanejad back to center is the most logical move, but then it creates a hole at 1RW that can’t be filled by anyone on the roster. Maybe Brett Berard or Gabe Perreault get a recall, and there’s a decent chance one or both would be fine in that role, but nothing is guaranteed. The Rangers are starved for scoring depth at the moment.
Keeping the top-six intact, save for Laba as the 2C, and dressing Juuso Parssinen as the 3C at least keeps the Rangers offense flowing (ish), but Parssinen simply hasn’t been the guy. Laba may have won the 3C role, but it was Parssinen’s to lose to start camp. He did just that with inconsistent play. Some like the 24 year old forward, and he’d be fine as a fourth liner/tweener, but as a 3C he’s probably miscast.
There are no other centers in the system that would be viable options.
Too early for a trade
The concern with a long term Vincent Trocheck injury is that it’s still October and many teams are still evaluating their rosters. Most contenders are either set or letting things play out. The bottom feeders are going to wait until the trade deadline to drive acquisition costs up. Unless there’s a team with extra centers in desperate need for a wing prospect, it’s tough to find a realistic trade partner at the moment.
The Rangers will have no choice but to deal with a Vincent Trocheck injury internally until a better option becomes available. The good news is that the way he’s been playing, Mika Zibanejad will probably be fine. The bad news is one more center injury and the Rangers are hoping for waiver wire fodder to hit.
Since we don’t know the severity of the injury, this may be jumping the gun. Hopefully there is nothing to worry about, and Trocheck won’t be out long term.
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