Ducks’ Jacob Trouba ‘not thrilled’ with how Rangers handled trade
Jacob Trouba is happy to be in his new home in Anaheim, but the former Blueshirts captain can’t say the same about how his exodus from Manhattan was handled by the New York Rangers.
“I was put in a position this summer to make a decision between my career and my family and I chose my family. I would choose my family 100 times over again,” Trouba told Mollie Walker of the New York Post. “I don’t feel bad about that. I was happy about it. I don’t like that it was made public necessarily or how everything unfolded so publicly, but I guess that’s part of New York and what happens.
“It made it difficult to play kind of with that hanging over everything. The result is the result. I’m happy with moving forward, but I’m not overly thrilled with how it went down. In my opinion, things could’ve been handled better. I’m not blaming anybody or anything, just kind of how it happened I thought was kind of unfortunate.”
Trouba trade talks began in the offseason and resurfaced in recent weeks when Rangers general manager Chris Drury informed his GM brethren about the defenseman’s availability. Trouba also confirmed to Walker on Friday that had he not granted a trade – Trouba’s contract includes a 15-team no-trade clause, per PuckPedia – the Rangers were prepared to place the veteran defenseman on waivers, giving him no control of his potential destination.
In the end, Trouba was not placed on waivers Friday but was traded to the Ducks shortly thereafter in a deal that returned defenseman Urho Vaakanainen and a fourth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft to New York.
On the season, Trouba had 24 appearances with the Rangers, picking up six points. In all, the 30-year-old Rochester, Mich., native spent part of six seasons in New York, totaling 364 regular-season contests in which he registered 31 goals and 105 assists for 136 points. Trouba was named captain of the Rangers prior to the 2022-23 campaign, and last season helped the club capture its fourth Presidents’ Trophy after it wrapped up the year with 114 points.