Rangers' Vincent Trocheck downplays second-round showdown with former team

Vincent Trocheck said that the New York Rangers' upcoming Eastern Conference second-round matchup with the Carolina Hurricanes is "just another series."

Okay, right.

Trocheck, 30, played with the Hurricanes from 2019-22 before signing a seven-year, $39.375 million free-agent deal with the Rangers the following offseason, coming off New York's defeat of Trocheck and Carolina in a seven-game series during the 2022 postseason.

"It's a playoff series that we need to get past to get to our goal to win the Stanley Cup," Trocheck said via Mark Cannizzaro of the New York Post.

Trocheck has become Mr. Everything for New York.

In addition to posting a career-high 77 points (25 goals and 52 assists) during the regular season, the 30-year-old center is a regular on the power-play and penalty-kill units and ranked second among all NHL centers who took at least 1,000 faceoffs with a 58.7 win percentage. He also averaged a career-high 21.27 minutes per game.

Trocheck posted three goals and three assists in the Rangers' four-game sweep of the Washington Capitals in the first round, in addition to winning 72% of his face-offs.

Skating against a former team is certainly familiar enough for Trocheck.

He played seven seasons with the Florida Panthers before being traded to the Hurricanes and has already faced them six times as a member of the Rangers.

"Playing against former teams isn't something that's new to me," he said. "I played with Carolina against Florida a bunch of times. It just happens in this league if you move from team to team."

Trocheck is not the only one holding a connection between the two teams.

New York coach Peter Laviolette coached Carolina to its only Stanley Cup in 2006. The captain of that team was current Hurricanes' coach Rod Brind'Amour.

In addition, Hurricanes defenseman Brady Skjei is a former Ranger and Hurricanes forward Jesper Fast (who is out for the season with a neck injury) also formerly played with New York.