Trocheck ready for 'emotional' return to face Rangers with Mammoth

SALT LAKE CITY -- Some places will always stay with you after you leave them. For Vincent Trocheck, that describes New York after playing the past four seasons with the New York Rangers.

“It’s always tough whenever you’re in a place for a few years and you get used to the area," Trocheck, now a member of the Utah Mammoth, said Wednesday. "You fall in love with a place, which we obviously did. It’s tough to move on but that is part of the business. It happens. I’ve done it a couple of times in my career now.”

The 33-year-old forward will revisit his recent past when he and Mammoth face the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Sunday (6 p.m. ET; Utah16, MSG, TVAS).

It will be the first time back on Garden ice since Trocheck was traded to Utah on July 1 for defenseman Sean Durzi, forward Cole Beaudoin and a third-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft.

“Yeah, it’ll be nice to get it out of the way early. I don’t want to be thinking about it,” Trocheck said of his New York return. “I haven’t really thought about it too much, but it’ll be interesting. It’ll be emotional.”

Asked if he keeps in touch with some of the Rangers, he said, “all of the ones who are still there, I guess.”

Trocheck had 253 points (89 goals, 164 assists) in 313 games with New York, including 53 points (16 goals, 37 assists) in 67 games last season. 

He also won gold with the United States at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Trocheck helped the Rangers advance to the Eastern Conference Final in 2023-24, where they lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in six games.

On Jan. 16, however, with New York last in the Eastern Conference, president and general manager Chris Drury announced the team would begin retooling its roster. The Rangers parted ways with several players, including forward Artemi Panarin, who’s now with the Los Angeles Kings, unsigned free agent defenseman Carson Soucy and Trocheck.

This is not the first time Trocheck has switched uniforms; selected by the Florida Panthers in the third round (No. 64) of the 2011 NHL Draft, he played his first six NHL seasons with the Panthers before being traded in the middle of his seventh to the Carolina Hurricanes on Feb. 24, 2020. He finished that season, along with two more for the Hurricanes, before joining the Rangers as a free agent on July 13, 2022. He has 631 points (239 goals, 392 assists) in 868 NHL games and 37 points (17 goals, 20 assists) in 56 Stanley Cup Playoff games.

Now he’s in his new home in Utah, and his first act with the Mammoth was a successful one; he had an assist in a 6-0 win against the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday.

“Everything’s been good,” Trocheck said. “We’ve been here for a while now, my family, so we’ve had some time to adjust to the area. The people are great. The kids have adjusted really well so it’s good.”

Anders Lee, Trocheck’s teammate with the Mammoth after being his foe in the East for many seasons, can relate. The 36-year-old forward signed a three-year, $16.2 million contract ($5.4 million average annual value) with the Mammoth as a free agent on July 1 after playing the first 14 years of his NHL career with the New York Islanders (2012-26).

“It’s phenomenal," said Lee, who scored his first goal in a Utah uniform on Thursday. "Now we can finally hang out, which we’ve been doing. It’s really nice to have someone else who’s going through something pretty similar with his kids and family.

“We’ve spent a lot of time with each other as families the last month or so, so, it’s nice to go through that together in a way and have someone else who’s feeling some similar feelings with everything.”

Though Utah will be in the New York area this week, playing the Rangers on Sunday and at the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday, Lee won’t make his return to UBS Arena until the Mammoth play at the Islanders on Feb. 15. 

The on-ice adjustment seems to be going smoothly as well for Trocheck, skating at right wing on the top line with left wing and captain Clayton Keller and center Nick Schmaltz.

“It’s been good,” said Schmaltz, who also scored Thursday. “I think it’s a bit of an adjustment. I think he’s played center all of his career, so I think we’re interchangeable there. It’s going to take a little bit of time, but I think we’re both smart players and we read off each other.”

Trocheck, along with Lee, has also bolstered Utah's leadership group. Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny said he saw that firsthand on Thursday.

“We’re at morning skate, working on the penalty kill and the power play," Tourigny said. "Trocheck is on the power play. In between reps, what is he doing? He’s going to see ‘Mads’ (assistant coach John Madden) to ask questions about the PK and the positioning. You can’t teach that. You just need to coach good pros."

Trocheck had some great times in New York, and will reminisce a bit about them this weekend, but his focus is now on the Mammoth.

“I think everybody’s just a little antsy," he said. "Most of us have been here for quite a while now, a little too much time before camp even started. You kind of get the dog days this summer out of the way and camp finally starts and we’re all ready to get going.

“We’re excited. There’s a lot of confidence in the group and high expectations. I think everyone’s just been raring to go.”