2024 Report Card: Jacob Trouba
The Blueshirts' captain had yet another rough outing in 2023-24, one that nearly culminated in a trade out of town
The scene is Game 6 of the 2022 Eastern Conference Final, taking place in the state of Florida (Amalie Arena in Tampa to be more specific) against the reigning conference champion Tampa Bay Lightning. The score is tied, and Jacob Trouba steps into no man's land at the offensive blue line. The poorly placed step up leads to a goal against off the rush to put the Rangers behind, a position they'll remain in until the clock runs out on their 2021-22 season.
The scene is Game 6 of the 2024 Eastern Conference Final, taking place in the state of Florida (Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise to be more specific) against the reigning conference champion Florida Panthers. The score is tied, and Jacob Trouba steps into no man's land at the defensive blue line. The poorly placed step up leads to a goal against off the rush to put the Rangers behind, a position they'll remain in until the clock runs out on their 2023-24 season.
Jacob Trouba has been an object of a portion of the Rangers fanbase's ire throughout his time on Broadway. His arrival in the summer of 2019 helped signal the end of New York's rebuild, but another poor on-ice showing during the season followed by a seemingly botched attempt to jettison the team captain to Detroit in the offseason has left Trouba in limbo.
Whether Trouba remains in New York as the Rangers' captain beyond the summer remains to be seen, but his play last season merits a look back:
Boxcar Stats: 69 GP, 3 G, 19 A, 129 SOG, 21:14 TOI/GP, 73 PIM, -7 Penalty Differential, -12 Even Strength Goal Differential
5-on-5 Analytical Metrics: 0.81 Points/60, -4.10 Relative CF%, -3.58 Relative SF%, -6.67 Relative GF%, -1.45 Relative Expected GF%, -2.86 Relative SCF%, 98.6 On-Ice PDO, -5.3 GAR
Playoff Stats: 7 Points, 20:58 TOI/GP, -2.01 Relative CF%, 1.67 Relative xGF%, -1 5-on-5 Goal Differential
Much as he had in the previous two seasons under Gerard Gallant, Trouba skated alongside K'Andre Miller on New York's second defensive pairing for a majority of the season. Skating in all but two games prior to the trade deadline, the Blueshirts captain brought the same physical edge to the ice that he traditionally did.
As is tradition, Trouba went over the edge on at least one occasion, an elbow to the head against a Vegas Golden Knight that resulted in a two game suspension, the only two games Trouba missed before the trade deadline.
Trouba's time from his return from the suspension to the trade deadline was uneventful, but an ankle injury announced shortly after New York's acquisition of Chad Ruhwedel sidelined the captain for three weeks. Trouba's return to the lineup didn't do much for the Rangers initially as Trouba was an unsightly -5 in two games against Pittsburgh and Arizona before participating in the opening faceoff line brawl against the New Jersey Devils and being ejected after recording two seconds of time on ice.
In the penultimate game of the regular season against the New York Islanders, Peter Laviolette opted for a personnel change the likes of which Rangers fans hadn't seen in the nearly five seasons Trouba has been on Broadway. Laviolette flip flopped Trouba and Braden Schneider, bumping Trouba to the bottom defensive pairing alongside Erik Gustafsson.
Those pairings continued into the early portion of the playoffs, and helped Trouba's performance to some degree. His relative shot attempt and scoring chance numbers, while still not would one might call "good", were better than the regular season numbers that had him pegged as the Blueshirts' worst regular defender.
Even as the shot and chance numbers looked better, the eye-poppingly bad sequences still came often enough to be an issue. Trouba took five minor penalties in the first two games of the divisional finals against Carolina, and had a ghastly streak of being on the ice for seven consecutive Hurricanes' goals between Games 2, 3, and 4.
The divisional finals weren't all bad for the captain, as he was responsible for one of the two goals Rangers' defenseman scored throughout the playoffs in Game 5:
Fitting in some ways that Trouba's best moment of the playoffs was overshadowed by the slop the Rangers put on the ice in the final 20 minutes of that Game 5.
Trouba posted another three minor penalty effort in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final, a game he was also on the ice for the final three of Florida's four goals that afternoon. That game saw him reunited with Miller on defense, part of a five game stretch the pair were together before Laviolette paired Trouba with Gustafsson once again for the final two games of New York's season.
When the dust settled on the Rangers' season, major changes were expected. Blueshirts' captains having unceremonious exits has become something of a theme for the organization, and rumors of a draft weekend trade to the REd Wings swirled around Trouba, appearing to all but end his time on Broadway.
The draft has come and gone, the major dominoes of free agency have fallen, and the Rangers' captain remains, now armed with knowledge of Chris Drury's desire to ship him elsewhere. The only thing keeping that from happening being the 15 team no-trade clause Drury's predecessor handed Trouba before he ever played a game as a Ranger.
Final Thoughts:
Jacob Trouba put forth yet another season of poor play, his worst moments coming under the brightest of lights. The Rangers attempted to take advantage of Trouba's full no-movement clause becoming a partial no-trade clause this offseason, but those attempts came up empty. Trouba's on-ice results may be salvageable if he sticks in the bottom pairing role he finished the season in, but that being the best case scenario for the team captain accounting for $8 million against the salary cap is a nightmare scenario.
It's a nightmare the Rangers will have to manage. For how poorly Trouba played last season, there's only one place to go from here, and that's up.
