Jacob Trouba is the captain of the New York Rangers and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future.
An expected trade to Detroit never happened, as the No. 8 submitted a 15-team trade veto list to general manager Chris Drury on Monday at the deadline. Now, sources are saying the deal depicted in this column on Saturday, in which the Blueshirts would have retained $2.5 million of Trouba’s $8 million annual cap charge for the next two years, was not on the table. Rumors that Trouba vetoed the deal are reportedly untrue.
The first day of free agency on Monday passed without the Rangers being able to add to their defense. In fact, they sent sixth-string defenseman Erik Gustafsson to the Red Wings on a two-year deal worth a whopping $2 million per year, and Zach Jones moved up in depth to the third-string left wing position.
Other defensemen who could potentially fill the blue-line holes left by Trouba’s tentative departure were quickly released from contract: Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson went to Toronto; Brett Pesce and Brenden Dillon signed with the Devils; and Nikita Zadorov joined the Bruins.
If the Rangers were to push for Trouba to free up a significant amount of cap space, they would have to find a replacement on the trade market, but the team has few valuable assets available and no players on the team are ready to take on top-six minutes.
According to information obtained by The Washington Post, there’s another factor that might keep the 30-year-old actor on Broadway for longer.
Trouba signed his current seven-year, $56 million contract in July 2019 after being acquired as a restricted free agent from Winnipeg, but his five-year no-transfer clause was designed to expire in time for his wife, Kelly Tyson Trouba, to finish a three-year residency at a hospital in New York.
However, Dr. Tyson Trouba’s training was initially delayed by a year, meaning the program she is required to complete will finish on July 1, 2025. The Troubas also welcomed their first child, a boy named Axel, in mid-January.
There is no guarantee that Jacob Trouba would accept even a move to a club on the approved list if it meant leaving behind his wife and (at the time of training camp) 9-month-old child. There is no guarantee that Dr. Tyson Trouba would be able to earn medical credits at another hospital and keep his medical license while accompanying his husband.
The matter has become part of a league-wide discussion, with several teams that would have made a big move to acquire Trouba reportedly likely waiting until Dr. Tyson Trouba completes his training next year and the defenseman plays the final season of his contract.
Sources said communication between Trouba, his camp and Drury and management has been professional with no hostility that would negatively impact the defenseman’s role as captain. If no further developments occur, it could be a one-sentence Q&A on the first day of training camp.
“As I said at the end of the year, Jacob plays hard every night and provides a lot of leadership to our team,” Drury said when asked about Trouba’s status during a media conference call on Monday. “Jacob knows how I feel about him as a person and as a player. I will keep any private conversations I have with him or his agent confidential.”
“We are always looking to move the team forward and do our best, but we are not going to look at individual players and say who will stay and who won’t.”
Trouba, who never received the same acclaim as Bob Baun, who played through a broken ankle in the 1964 playoffs, is projected to be the team’s third-pairing right defenseman behind Adam Fox and Braden Schneider. Obviously spending $8 million in cap space on a third-pairing defenseman isn’t cost-effective, but that’s where the Rangers are.
The Blueshirts still have to work out contracts with Schneider and Ryan Lindgren, who is a restricted free agent. Lindgren, who likely wants a longer deal than the Rangers are comfortable with, has arbitration rights one year before he becomes an unrestricted free agent. In the absence of a long-term deal, either No. 55 or the team is expected to file a claim.
If the first rule for management in free agency is to do no harm, Drury accomplished that rule on a low-key day by signing 32-year-old fourth-line pioneer center Sam Carrick to a three-year contract averaging $1 million per year and acquiring 33-year-old winger Reilly Smith from the Penguins with a second-round pick in 2027 and a fifth-round pick in 2025.
Smith will carry a $3.75 million cap charge, with the Penguins retaining $1.25 million. Smith had a down year, recording 13 goals and 40 points, after leaving Las Vegas in a trade with the 2023 Cup champions. Smith is a candidate to slide into the right wing alongside Mika Zibandeged and Chris Kreider. Smith has just one year left on his contract.
The addition of these two players leaves the Blueshirts with roughly $10.8 million in space on their shadow roster, which consists of two goalies, 14 forwards and four defensemen, including Jacob Trouba.
