TARRYTOWN, N.Y. – The New York Rangers found a taker for Jacob Trouba.
They’re shipping their captain to the Anaheim Ducks. In return, New York will receive defenseman Urho Vaakanainen and a 2025 fourth-round draft pick.
Most important, the Ducks will take on Trouba’s full $8 million salary cap charge for the rest of this season and the next. That jumps the Rangers’ available cap space to more than $8.5 million and puts them on pace to accrue over $27 million by the March 7 trade deadline, according to PuckPedia.
The deal was finalized Friday after the Blueshirts held the 30-year-old defenseman out of their morning skate in advance of their 7:30 p.m. home game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The situation had become increasingly untenable, with lingering awkwardness from when they attempted to trade Trouba over the summer. He knew his days in New York were numbered and he was unlikely to stick around for the final year of a seven-year contract he signed in 2019, with team president Chris Drury deciding to rip the band-aid off now.
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It’s believed that Trouba’s approval was required to complete a deal with the Ducks, who may have been on his 15-team no-trade list. Had he refused to do so, the Rangers likely would have placed him on waivers and thereby allowing any team to claim him.
Trouba’s hometown Detroit Red Wings were also involved in the trade talks, according to one person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity, but they didn’t have the cap space to make it work unless the Rangers agreed to retain a portion of his salary.
Of course, the problems go well beyond one player. The sinking Rangers have lost six of their last seven games and are clinging to a wild-card spot by one point entering Friday, but their captain is the first to fall on the sword.
Coach Peter Laviolette said he and Drury ‘are together in our thoughts’ about moving on from Trouba.
‘It’s not meant to be a message,’ he said before the trade. ‘I think everybody’s understanding of where we’ve been for the last month and how we’ve played. We can’t continue down that road or we’ll find ourselves out of the playoffs. The best thing is we need to set a path that can move us back up in the standings.’
Trouba made his strong preference to stay in New York clear when trade talks were heating up over the summer, which multiple people in the league believe scared off some teams.
How Trouba being cast aside will play in a locker room that has felt increasingly fragile lately is a roll of the dice.
‘That’s a decision between the team and him, from what I’m understanding,’ center Mika Zibanejad said after the news that Trouba was being held out of the lineup. ‘As a player, as a teammate, as a friend and human being, we love him to death.’
Chris Kreider, who’s also been shopped by Drury in the last couple weeks, acknowledged that he has thoughts on the situation, but declined to comment.
‘Not today,’ he said. ‘We’ve got to focus on winning a hockey game.’
Others recognized it as a potential distraction but expressed their desire to try to block it out.
‘It’s hard not to react when you hear things,’ Zibanejad said. ‘But at the same time, I think a lot of us have been in the situation before where there’s been rumors and there’s been talks. There are really a lot of those things that are out of your control. The thing that we can control is our game, and the next game. And that’s what we have to do tonight.’
This story has been updated with new information.
Vincent Z. Mercogliano is the New York Rangers beat reporter for the USA TODAY Network.