TORONTO — Vincent Trocheck was among the last four players picked for the NHL’s All-Star Game, which meant the Rangers center had to open a randomly distributed card to find out his team instead of getting drafted by one of the league-selected captains.
The NHL evidently didn’t want there to be a last-kid-picked-for-kickball situation — something that’s happened in the past and didn’t go over well.
But the Rangers, the NHL and the other All-Star players know Trocheck may not always be in the running for this kind of honor from the league, but that doesn’t diminish the value he brings to any team.
Just ask his All-Star captain, the Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews, who played with Trocheck on Team North America in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
“He’s a guy that you really love to have on your team,” Matthews said Thursday after the player draft concluded inside Scotiabank Arena. “I was actually telling [Morgan Rielly] when they were getting the cards out and everything, I looked up at our team and there was only one natural center, which is myself. I was telling him I hope there’s not too many whistles because there’s not too many guys that can take faceoffs out here. He’s a guy that’s really good in that category.
“Playing against him is always a challenge because of that reason. He’s extremely smart out there, as well, and just a strong player and always gives you a tough matchup.”
Trocheck has played on the same team as several of his fellow All-Stars in the past, and each one of them can’t help but smile when the 30-year-old center’s name comes up.
That’s just the effect Trocheck has always seemed to have on his teammates throughout his hockey career.
That 2016 team — popularly referred to as the Young Guns — featured several players who would go on to become some of the NHL’s biggest stars.
Seven of them were named 2024 All-Stars: Trocheck, Matthews, Rielly, Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck, Canucks forward J.T. Miller, Avalanche captain Nathan MacKinnon and Oilers captain Connor McDavid.
It’s largely a group of players who are regulars at the annual All-Star festivities.
This is Trocheck’s second appearance after participating in the event when he was in his fifth NHL season with the Panthers in 2017.
Aside from Artemi Panarin, who declined his All-Star invite in anticipation of the birth of his second child, there is no Rangers player more deserving of this year’s honor than Trocheck.
“I think super well-deserved,” said McDavid, a seven-time All-Star. “A guy that kind of does everything. Hard to play against. Good offensively. Kind of helps your game all over. I know he did that for our under-23 team. He was a big piece of that.”
Added MacKinnon, a five-time All-Star: “Tough to play against, always tough.”
Trocheck is the epitome of the kind of player whose value is not correlated to how many headlines he’s featured in.
Those players don’t always get the acknowledgment they deserve, or get to have a moment like Trocheck did with his 5-year-old son, Leo, who sat on his lap during his podium interview Thursday.
The players, however, know who they’d want on their team. Trocheck certainly has been one of them for a long time.
“He’s having an amazing year,” said Capitals forward Tom Wilson, who played with Trocheck during their junior days with the Ontario Hockey League’s Plymouth Whalers in 2012-13. “He’s got a ton of talent. Obviously, a battle now against him and a big rival, but I’m happy for him.”