Latest On Vincent Trocheck
Heading into Friday’s trade deadline, there is growing confidence that Vincent Trocheck will be traded from the New York Rangers. However, if you’re a fan of a Western Conference team, don’t expect Trocheck to be joining your club.
According to Vince Z. Mercogliano of The Athletic, Trocheck confirmed that he prefers to stay in the Eastern Conference. Mercogliano quoted Trocheck, saying, “It’s no secret. (West teams) are on my no-trade list.”
Trocheck’s comments indicate that every team on his 12-team no-trade clause is in the Western Conference. That theoretically leaves the possibility for four Western Conference teams to pursue Trocheck, as well as the entire Eastern Conference. Given that he’s also committed to winning, that could leave the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild as potential options, as they’re both in the Central Time Zone.
Any team interested in Trocheck will know exactly what they’re getting. He’s been remarkably consistent and healthy throughout his career, particularly during his tenure with the Rangers. Since signing a seven-year, $39.83MM ($5.63MM AAV) contract with New York in 2022, Trocheck has scored 85 goals and 238 points in 291 games, averaging 20:40 of ice time. Additionally, even though his cap hit will remain $5.63MM through the 2028-29 season, Trocheck will only have $14.5MM ($4.83MM/yr) remaining on the last three years of his contract.
There is nothing in Trocheck’s game that has suffered a steep fall off since entering his 30s. He remains physical, a quality performer in the faceoff dot, and defensively sound. For any playoff-bound team, there are few options better than Trocheck built for the postseason.
The two notable Eastern Conference teams that have been heavily linked to Trocheck are the Carolina Hurricanes and the Detroit Red Wings. Trocheck should be comfortable with either club, given that both are competitive this season and he has ties to both. He played two and a half years with the Hurricanes before ultimately signing as a free agent with the Rangers.
Additionally, despite being born in Pittsburgh, Trocheck spent his amateur hockey days with the Detroit-based Little Caesars hockey program before joining the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit. Furthermore, Trocheck’s wife, Hillary, grew up in the Saginaw, MI area.
Snapshots: Schneider, Gibson, Lajoie
New York Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider is one of the top trade assets the Rangers have at their disposal in advance of the deadline next week. According to The Athletic’s Vincent Z. Mercogliano, “Schneider being traded feels like a 50-50 proposition,” and Rangers GM Chris Drury is reportedly “content” to retain Schneider if no team is willing to meet the high asking price he has set.
According to Mercogliano, the Rangers’ preference in any Schneider deal is a “hockey trade,” meaning they’re looking for younger players who are NHL-ready or at least very close to being NHL-ready. That falls in line with how the Rangers have framed their current team direction, being that of a “re-tool” rather than a full-scale rebuild. Whether the Rangers will be able to receive the kind of offers for Schneider that they’re looking for is still unclear. It would not be a huge surprise to see New York receive considerable interest in Schneider, of course, given his age, positional value and what he has accomplished as an NHL player thus far.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- Former New York Islanders goalie Christopher Gibson has signed in the DEL, joining the Schwenninger Wild Wings of Germany’s top pro league. The former Islanders goalie has 16 NHL games on his resume and has played in 244 career AHL games. He was last in North America in 2022-23 when he got into 20 games for the AHL Coachella Valley Firebirds, and has bounced between several European teams. So far in 2025-26, he has played in four games for Italian club HC Bolzano of the ICEHL, posting an .879 save percentage and 1-3 record.
- Defenseman Maxime Lajoie, a former member of the Ottawa Senators, signed a one-year contract extension with KHL club Avangard Omsk. The team’s official statement called Lajoie an “indispensable part” of the team’s defense, something that is underscored by his 37 points in 60 games this season. Like Gibson, Lajoie also last played in North America as a member of the AHL Firebirds. In 2024-25, Lajoie scored 38 points in 70 games for Coachella. He has played in the NHL most recently in 2023-24, with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Rangers Claim Tye Kartye From Kraken
1:45 p.m.: The Rangers announced that winger Brennan Othmann, not Morrow, is the roster casualty for Kartye. Othmann heads to Hartford after scoring once in 11 games on his most recent call-up.
1:03 p.m.: The Rangers have claimed winger Tye Kartye off waivers from the Kraken, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. New York does not have an open roster spot and will need to make a corresponding move.
Kartye, 24, was an undrafted free agent signed by the Kraken in 2022. He ended up on waivers yesterday after slowly slipping out of regular fourth-line deployment over the past two years. The OHL Sault Ste. Marie product is in his third NHL season but has been limited to eight points and a -6 rating through 40 games, serving as a healthy scratch in 10 of Seattle’s final 13 games before the Olympic break. He’s two years removed from a rookie season that saw him notch 11 goals and 20 points in 77 games for the Kraken, though.
With another year left on his contract at a $1.25MM cap hit, he’ll now look for more opportunity to contribute in the Rangers’ patchwork bottom-six forward group. He has a career 20-21–41 scoring line with a -21 rating in 180 career appearances. He’s primarily played left wing in his pro career, but has some versatility down the middle if needed. He’ll add another element of physical depth, averaging 2.79 hits per game for his career, while contributing a bit of scoring upside in Manhattan.
The Rangers are carrying eight defensemen, so it stands to reason that the waiver-exempt Scott Morrow, who was a healthy scratch in yesterday’s overtime loss to the Flyers, will be on his way to AHL Hartford to make room for Kartye on the active roster.
Wild Emerging As Frontrunner In Vincent Trocheck Trade Talks
As the Wild gear up for an all-in trade deadline following their earlier acquisition of Quinn Hughes, they’re now the league-wide favorite to acquire center Vincent Trocheck from the Rangers, according to Vince Z. Mercogliano of The Athletic and David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period.
Minnesota’s interest in Trocheck dates back several weeks but was surely fueled by Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic’s report earlier this month that the Rangers had essentially resigned themselves to moving him by the deadline, as compared to making it a summer deal. For a team that lost a top-six center in Marco Rossi in the Hughes deal, adding another one – a clear-cut upgrade, no less – is a natural next step for general manager Bill Guerin as he aims to guide the Wild out of a cutthroat Central Division picture in the playoffs.
While salary cap considerations have kept the Wild out of major trade conversations in recent years, that’s no longer the case. Even after the Hughes deal, they project to have $12.3MM in cap space on deadline day, per PuckPedia. That’s more than enough to take on Trocheck’s deal, which runs at a cap hit of $5.625MM through 2028-29, with no retention and without subtracting a roster player from the mix.
Minnesota has depleted a good portion of its valuable young talent, shipping off Liam Ohgren and Zeev Buium alongside Rossi in the Hughes trade, but has more to spare. As Mercogliano writes, 2022 first-rounder Danila Yurov is likely a non-starter. The rookie has eight goals and 22 points in 52 outings this season and is now Minnesota’s clear-cut top “prospect,” depending on your definition of the word. Mercogliano relays word from his Minnesota-based colleague, Michael Russo, that he “would be very difficult to pry away,” even for a talent like Trocheck with 37 points in 44 games on an offensively stagnant Rangers club.
Aside from that roadblock, there are still plenty of other names the Wild could leverage for the Rangers to consider. Center Charlie Stramel, the Wild’s first-rounder in 2023, has recovered nicely from a tough start to his college career and is now a standout 21-year-old senior at Michigan State, posting a 19-21–40 scoring line in 30 games with a +30 rating that leads forwards nationally. Right-shot defenseman David Jiricek, drafted sixth overall by the Blue Jackets in 2022, hasn’t demonstrated much forward progress since his acquisition last season, and it stands to reason they’d be comfortable flipping him as a result.
Trocheck does have some say in where he ends up with a 12-team no-trade list. The 32-year-old is reportedly open to a move to the Twin Cities but would otherwise prefer to stay in the Eastern Conference. Pagnotta reports that the Kings, Jets, Mammoth, and Avalanche have expressed some level of interest as well, but those could all end up being non-starters based on his M-NTC.
Sharks Have Shown Interest In Braden Schneider
The Sharks’ forward progress this season means they’ve fully exited the teardown portion of their rebuild. They’re expected to ship out a couple of names from their bevy of pending UFA veteran defenders, but that won’t preclude them from adding pieces too. They already swung to pick up winger Kiefer Sherwood from the Canucks earlier this year and made a play to snag Artemi Panarin from the Rangers. Their talks with New York didn’t stop with Panarin, though. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports San Jose is among the teams to show interest in Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider.
The 24-year-old Schneider certainly doesn’t qualify as adding star power to the mix, but he fills a huge organizational need for a Sharks club whose only long-term weakness is a relative lack of promising right-shot defenders in the system. He’s more of a shutdown threat than a puck-mover but did hit the 20-point plateau last season, now with a 2-9–11 scoring line and a -15 rating in 57 games in 2025-26. That’s come while the physical 6’3″ righty is averaging a career-high 20:19 of ice time per game, in large part due to his elevation into top-pair minutes for long stretches this season while Adam Fox has been dealing with injuries.
Schneider’s underlying numbers aren’t particularly strong. He’s never had a positive relative Corsi For percentage at 5-on-5 and has remained underwater in expected goals for the duration of his career as well. He fits a familiar mold of first-round picks struggling to find their way in New York – but with five seasons and nearly 350 NHL games under his belt, he’s almost a finished product. His toolbox is solid, but it’s fair to wonder if his lack of success in the possession department is a good fit for a Sharks team that already ranks last in the league with a 45.2% Corsi share at even strength.
Still, the Sharks don’t have much of a choice to add young right-shot depth, and Schneider is one of the few names who’s realistically available as New York embarks on a retool of its own. All three of their righties on their active roster, John Klingberg, Vincent Desharnais, and Timothy Liljegren, will be UFAs this summer. They do have 23-year-old Jack Thompson in the minors as a capable call-up option, and 2022 second-rounder Mattias Havelid is tracking to make an impact within the next couple of years, but neither has the size nor skillset Schneider brings. University of Denver standout Eric Pohlkamp is also in their system, but is also on the wrong side of 6’0″.
The Rangers were receiving calls on Schneider as far back as October. Just how long the Sharks have been in the mix remains to be seen, but their search for rights-controlled right-shot defenders operates independently of their immediate likelihood of playoff contention.
Rangers Activate Adam Fox, Igor Shesterkin, Conor Sheary
12:26 p.m.: Fox, Shesterkin, and Sheary are off LTIR/IR with winger Brett Berard heading to AHL Hartford and goaltender Hugo Ollas heading to ECHL Bloomington in the corresponding moves, the team announced. Both had been recalled as practice players over the Olympic break.
11:03 a.m.: The Rangers will activate defenseman Adam Fox and winger Conor Sheary from long-term injured reserve and goaltender Igor Shesterkin from standard IR before tonight’s game against the Flyers, head coach Mike Sullivan told reporters (including Vince Z. Mercogliano of The Athletic). New York has one open roster spot, but will need to open two more before formalizing the moves.
While there will be plenty of starpower re-entering the Blueshirts’ lineup after the Olympic break, it will likely impact the outcome of their season very little. A 2-8-0 slide in their last 10 heading into the pause left them with a 22-29-6 record, leaving them as the only Eastern Conference team below .500 and in an eight-point hole for last place. They have virtually no chance of making the playoffs, but do currently boast 10.4% odds of locking up the first overall pick for the second time in seven years, per MoneyPuck.
Still, getting a pair of household names back in the lineup will make the stretch run far more tolerable for an offensively woeful Rangers team, especially after they offloaded leading point-getter Artemi Panarin in a blockbuster with the Kings at the beginning of the month. Without him, the Rangers have just six names who have crossed the 25-point mark this season with 25 games remaining on the schedule.
One of them is Fox, who’s bounced back in a big way this season after an underwhelming 2024-25 campaign. Of course, underwhelming by the 28-year-old’s standards still meant finishing 12th in Norris Trophy voting, but the 5’11” righty has now reclaimed his place among the few most impactful rearguards in the league – despite what his pre-injury snub from Team USA’s Olympic roster may otherwise indicate.
Various upper-body and lower-body issues have limited Fox to 30 appearances this year, with the latter one costing him 12 games before the break. He’s still managed four goals and 24 assists for 28 points, ranking eighth among NHL defenders with 0.93 points per game. That’s been complemented by Fox having the most offensively-involved season of his seven-year career, averaging 5.30 shot attempts per game, while also recording career-highs in actual (56.4) and relative (11.7) Corsi For percentage at 5-on-5.
Behind him, the Rangers’ right-shot depth is uninspiring. William Borgen is a fine bottom-four shutdown piece, but can’t handle top-pair minutes. Youngster Vincent Iorio was claimed off waivers from the Sharks prior to the break to ease the strain, but he only managed to get into one contest before the schedule paused. They’ve elevated Braden Schneider into top-pairing duties with Vladislav Gavrikov in Fox’s absence this year, but that pairing has controlled just 42.5% of expected goals at 5-on-5 compared to Gavrikov and Fox’s 57.9% mark. That all makes Fox the Rangers’ most valuable skater, at least after Panarin’s departure, by a rather significant margin.
No single player is more tied to the Rangers’ success than Shesterkin, though, as it has been virtually since he entered the league. The 2022 Vezina Trophy winner and Hart Trophy finalist steps back into the starter’s crease after sustaining a lower-body injury against the Mammoth on Jan. 5.
Last season, the 30-year-old didn’t receive any Vezina votes for the first time since his rookie season. That correlated with the Blueshirts missing the postseason for the first time in four years. It’s unclear how his more limited playing time this season due to injuries will impact his standing, but like Fox, he’s had a bounce-back year when healthy.
The 6’1″ Russian is no longer putting up the electric .930+ save percentages we saw early in his career – no one is anymore, for that matter – but his .913 mark and 2.45 GAA are both considerable steps up from last year. He owns a 17-12-4 record through 34 starts and still ranks fifth in the league with 15.5 goals saved above expected, according to MoneyPuck. On a per 60 basis, his 0.464 mark ranks fourth among goalies with at least 30 appearances.
Without Shesterkin, the Rangers have fallen apart with a 5-17-2 record. Aging backup Jonathan Quick has only managed a .890 SV% in 19 starts and one relief appearance, while third-stringer Spencer Martin has a .863 SV% and 4.13 GAA in four starts and two relief appearances. In their 13 games without Shesterkin heading into the break, they only won twice and allowed 4.62 goals per game.
As for Sheary, the 33-year-old winger has had a negligible impact in a bottom-six role after converting a professional tryout in training camp into a two-way deal. Despite averaging 14:35 of ice time per game, his highest deployment in three years, he’s scored just once while adding eight assists for nine points in 37 games.
Dating back to the 2023-24 campaign with the Lightning, the two-time Stanley Cup champion now has just five goals in his last 99 games. After spending most of last season in the AHL, he seems destined to return to a minor-league role next season after failing to make a positive impression in New York. Nonetheless, the Rangers’ dearth of bottom-six forwards and continued injuries to Adam Edstrom and Matt Rempe will mean he returns in a third-line role tonight with Noah Laba and Brendan Brisson. He hasn’t played since sustaining a lower-body injury against the Capitals on New Year’s Eve.
Image courtesy of Brad Penner-Imagn Images.
Jonathan Quick Wants To Remain With Rangers
Already missing Igor Shesterkin, the New York Rangers don’t have much wiggle room to lose another goaltender to injury. Earlier today, according to Peter Baugh of The Athletic, de facto starter Jonathan Quick left practice early due to a lower-body injury.
Fortunately for Quick and the Rangers, his exit from practice was described as a precaution. Even if it’s something mild, the Rangers have five more days until their return to action, giving Quick ample time to recover. Since taking over the net in early January, Quick has managed a 1-8-1 record in 10 games with a .852 SV%.
If the Rangers reciprocate, it likely won’t be Quick’s last year with the team. In an interview with Peter Botte of the New York Post, Quick said, “I’m happy here. I want to be here. It means a lot to me to wear this jersey.” It’s a similar sentiment to what Quick has had in the past, and he’s not expected to be one of the several pieces the team sells off leading up to the trade deadline.
Rangers’ Matt Rempe Will Undergo Thumb Procedure, Placed On IR
New York Rangers head coach Mike Sullivan will have to make some lineup changes when he returns from Team USA’s run at the Winter Olympics. The Rangers announced that enforcer Matt Rempe will undergo another procedure to fix the thumb injury that held him out of 24 games earlier in the season, per the New York Post’s Mollie Walker. Rempe has been placed on injured reserve while he recovers from the procedure. He will be eligible to return on February 27th, the day after New York’s first game back from the Olympic break.
Rempe sustained his injury in a fight with San Jose Sharks winger Ryan Reaves in late October. He stayed out of the lineup until mid-December, then rotated into games through the start of the Olympic break. Rempe has totaled one goal, a minus-four, and 11 penalty minutes in 26 games this season. He has also thrown 86 hits, giving him the highest per-game average on the team.
The NHL’s tallest player has stuck to his fourth-line role in the Rangers lineup this season – though with a bit more poise than normal. Rempe went 12 games without a penalty after returning from his injury in December. He followed that with back-to-back games with a penalty but avoided the penalty box in his last three games. A part of that discipline is surely Rempe’s inability to fight while he nurses an injured thumb. He has only two fights this season, after recording six last season. His health will continue to be assessed as New York kicks back into gear for the season’s final sprint.
Rangers Recall Brett Berard, Brendan Brisson
The Rangers announced they’ve recalled forwards Brett Berard and Brendan Brisson from AHL Hartford. With multiple Blueshirts still overseas at the Winter Olympics, Berard and Brisson will serve as practice supplements before likely returning to Hartford in a few days’ time.
Berard was in contention for a full-time NHL role this year, but it didn’t pan out that way for the 23-year-old. A fifth-round pick in 2020, he got a long look last season as a second-year pro. He spent a good chunk of time in a third-line role and ended up with six goals and 10 points in 35 appearances, shooting at 10.2% while averaging 10:43 of ice time per game.
He didn’t land a roster spot out of camp, though, and has been passed over for more experienced names like Conor Sheary or higher-ceiling options like Brennan Othmann and Gabriel Perreault for call-ups and playing time. He’s seen a handful of recalls throughout the year but has struggled to make an impact, going pointless in 13 outings with a -1 rating and 17 hits.
That coincided with Berard’s production in Hartford taking a small step back as well. After a 25-goal rookie year and racking up 0.77 points per game in 2024-25, Berard’s been limited to a 6-12–18 scoring line in 34 games with the Wolf Pack with a -13 rating. At 5’9″ and 174 lbs, if he’s not producing offensively, he’s not likely to get many more NHL looks.
Brisson is in his first full season with the Rangers organization after being acquired from the Golden Knights in last year’s Reilly Smith trade deadline deal. The 24-year-old was the No. 29 overall pick in 2020 and once looked like a future top-six fixture in Vegas after an impressive collegiate performance, but his AHL production took a turn for the worse over the last couple of years.
After being limited to seven goals in 61 AHL games between Henderson and Hartford last year, though, he seems to have found more footing. Two-way play remains a concern with a team-worst -21 rating, but he’s rattled off 13 goals and 23 points in 46 games. He’s three goals and five points shy of Trey Fix-Wolansky for the team lead, and considering how much trouble the Rangers have had getting depth scoring this season, there might be another recall opportunity or two for him down the stretch.
Poll: Which Team Should Make The Biggest Push For Shane Wright?
A weak Western Conference has the hot-and-cold Kraken still squarely in contention for a playoff spot. Seattle had won six of eight entering the break, moving them into third in the Pacific Division and tied with the Ducks for the second wild-card slot (although the Kraken have three more regulation wins).
Despite teetering on the edge of a berth all season, general manager Jason Botterill’s overall deadline strategy appears to be as aggressive as possible. 2022 fourth overall pick Shane Wright is one name that could very well be on the move after reports last month indicated they were open to dangling him as the big fish to land a major upgrade for their top-six forward group.
While it would normally be surprising to see a team so uncertain of its short-term outlook being willing to dangle such a high-value young asset, Seattle has assembled a deep prospect pool over the last few years that can easily handle the loss of Wright. Even just considering centers, they’ve supplemented him with two more top-10 picks in Berkly Catton in 2024 and Jake O’Brien last year.
The desire to give Wright a fresh start elsewhere appears to come from both player and team. That makes sense considering Wright has had his ice time reduced from last season under first-year head coach Lane Lambert, despite coming off a strong 19-goal, 44-point effort in 79 games in his first extended look in NHL minutes in 2024-25.
As a result, this year his production has dipped to 11 goals and 22 points in 56 games. That’s a points-per-game decrease from 0.56 to 0.39, accompanied by a 10-second drop in ice time per game.
The Ontario native has also struggled in the two most important secondary areas for a center – faceoffs and possession control. He’s winning just 37.9% of his draws this year after hitting 44.4% last season while controlling 46.3% of shot attempts at even strength. The latter number is particularly disappointing considering he’s been given sheltered usage, starting over two-thirds of his shifts in the offensive zone.
Nonetheless, there are a few teams looking to move out a top-six piece that wouldn’t benefit from a 22-year-old center with the pedigree of being a top-five pick. Which sellers should be the most aggressive in trying to ensure they strike a deal with Kraken and recoup Wright?
Calgary Flames
Even among sellers, you’d be hard-pressed to find a team with two tangible top-six forwards – with term – to use as trade chips. If Seattle wants to make a push for either Blake Coleman or Nazem Kadri, the Flames are asking for Wright as the starting piece of the return, especially for the latter.
They’ve done well to build out their prospect pool on defense (particularly the right side) and on the wings, but they’re missing a clear-cut top-six piece down the middle long-term, especially with Samuel Honzek appearing to shift to the wing full-time and Cole Reschny‘s slighter frame likely making him a better fit at left wing than center at the NHL level. They’re not currently icing a center under the age of 25 in the NHL, either, at least not with John Beecher injured.
Adding Wright gives them more hope down the middle long-term with greater offensive upside than a name like Honzek has been able to show in the pros thus far.
New York Rangers
Seattle made a big contract offer to Artemi Panarin but struck out with the winger deciding it was L.A. or bust. With the two clubs already having engaged in trade talks on the star winger, the Kraken might opt to put themselves in the conversation for Rangers middleman Vincent Trocheck as well.
For a team still in the earlier stages of a retool like the Rangers, they wouldn’t be too concerned with position when getting as high-value an asset as Wright back in a deal. Nonetheless, recouping a young, higher-ceiling center by March 6 would be a dream scenario for Blueshirts GM Chris Drury.
The Rangers’ arsenal of U23 potential top-six contributors at forward – Gabriel Perreault, Liam Greentree, and Malcolm Spence – are all wingers. Their best center prospect, 22-year-old Noah Laba, has operated as their third-line center for most of the year and, while he’s clearly made the jump to full-time NHLer status, has never been touted as anything more than a long-term 3C option.
With such a pressing positional need down the middle, especially if they’re intent on flipping Trocheck with several years left on his deal, Wright is a perfect addition.
St. Louis Blues
The Blues aren’t actively shopping Robert Thomas, but they are listening to offers. It will still take a gargantuan price tag – reported to be four first-round picks or equivalent assets – to land a deal, but the Kraken are well-positioned to do so with Wright ready to fill one of those four slots and four first-round picks available in the next two drafts.
Unlike for Calgary and New York, though, adding Wright down the middle would more signal a completion of the long-term puzzle down the middle than a much-needed jumpstart. Dalibor Dvorsky, still just 20 years old, has arrived this season as he looks to be a high-end second-line piece for St. Louis throughout his prime. Another recent first-rounder, Otto Stenberg, hasn’t looked out of place in NHL action this year, either.
Wright’s sluggish development so far wouldn’t solve the need for finding a bona fide first-line piece to serve as a direct replacement for Thomas, but he would give the Blues ample top-nine depth for their next playoff contention window.
Vancouver Canucks
The Canucks are headed straight toward the best odds at the first overall pick in this year’s draft, in large part due to a lack of production from the middle of the ice. Their middle-six pivots for much of the year, David Kämpf and Aatu Räty, have combined for all of five goals.
They already picked up Marco Rossi from the Wild in the Quinn Hughes deal, but he’s battled through a broken foot this season and only had a goal and an assist in eight appearances for Vancouver before the break. There’s also the matter of star first-liner Elias Pettersson, who’s still struggled to get anywhere close to the heights of his 102-point breakout three years ago. He’s scoring at a 57-point pace this season, the worst of his career.
If Seattle wants to buy low on the high-priced pivot, Wright won’t have more opportunity at premier minutes anywhere else than in Vancouver.
If the Kraken do leverage Wright into a top-six upgrade, which team would stand to reap the most rewards? Have your say in the poll below: