How one Canes center found his comfort zone a year after being traded by the Panthers
Vincent Trocheck freely says he hasn’t made many friends in the NHL among those who go up against him on the ice.
Trocheck has played 440 games in the league, so that’s a lot of upset people.
But that’s the way the Carolina Hurricanes center is when he goes over the boards. He’s combative, he’s tough. He’s crafty and also skillful. Annoying? He’s that, too.
“He’s a smart hockey player and he can make plays but I always thought the intangible was that he was a very competitive player,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said on a media call this week.
It shows. In the Canes 10-3-1 start this season, Trocheck has seven goals -- three on the power play -- and seven assists. He has twice had game-deciding goals in shootouts, been used in penalty killing and is reliable in the faceoff circle, winning 57.7% of his draws.
In the Canes’ 4-3 overtime loss Wednesday to the Florida Panthers, it was Trocheck’s redirection of an Andrei Svechnikov pass in the third period and power-play goal that tied the score 3-3. It extended his point streak to five games and, in the end, earned Carolina a point.
It was Trocheck at his best, getting to the net, setting up near the post. Keeping his stick on the ice, he let the curve of the blade ricochet the puck up and into the top of the net, leaving goalie Chris Driedger with a “did-that-just-happen” look.
That it came against the Panthers had to be satisfying, and Trocheck could have had more than one goal in the game. Hours before the game, after the morning skate at PNC Arena, Trocheck had low-keyed facing his former team for the first time, saying it would be weird but adding, “Once you get on the ice it’s just hockey.”
That’s what he said. He played like it was more than just hockey, staying on the move in his 20 minutes of playing time, the most of any Canes forward.
Trocheck, 27, was once well-grounded with the Panthers, who drafted him in the third round in 2011 and helped him develop into an effective, highly dependable NHL player. In 2017-18, he scored 31 goals and had 75 points, both career highs, with the promise of similar years to come.
A Pittsburgh native, he had found a home in South Florida, playing in the arena next to the Everglades. It’s a comfortable setting and Trocheck was comfortable with all of it.
Injuries were setbacks
Then, in November 2018, Trocheck was hit along the end boards by Ryan Dzingel of the Ottawa Senators. Carried off the ice on a stretcher, he was found to have fractured an ankle. That hampered his mobility in 2018-19, and he was hit with a shot in a game in October 2019, calling it another setback.
And then he was traded. On Feb. 24, 2020, the NHL trade deadline, Trocheck was sent to the Canes for centers Erik Haula and Lucas Wallmark, forward Eetu Luostarinen and defensive prospect Chase Priskie. That was a jolt.
“It was my first time being traded and I had spent my whole time in Florida and saying bye to those guys is tough,” he said after the trade.
It was a slow go for Trocheck with the Canes before the NHL suspended the 2019-20 season in March because of the coronavirus pandemic. Nor was he that productive in the 2020 postseason.
But the time off after the postseason refreshed him. He returned for training camp feeling frisky and with a positive attitude. He’s often seen with a smile on his face on the ice.
Canes fans are beginning to learn more about him: how his father was a musician who played alto saxophone and also had a grand piano in the Trocheck house, teaching his son to play. “He was pretty talented,” he said.
Trocheck began playing hockey when he was 3 and grew up a Penguins fan. He competed for the U.S. in the World Junior Championship, winning a gold medal in 2013, and the 2014 World Championship. He has been an NHL All-Star in 2017 and has reclaimed his old form this season.
“It’s being 100 percent healthy for the first time in a couple of years,” Trocheck said. “Then being comfortable in this organization.”
Trocheck has centered a line with Nino Niederreiter and the speedy Martin Necas. Proficient in shootouts, Trocheck has had game-deciding shootout goals twice against the Dallas Stars.
“I think he’s comfortable now in this uniform and this organization and his role,” Brind’Amour said. “It just took a little while.”
Carolina Hurricanes vs. Chicago Blackhawks
When: Friday, 7 p.m.
Where: PNC Arena, Raleigh
TV: FSCR
