In an NHL off-season filled with big moves, forward Vincent Trocheck made one of the biggest in terms of lifestyle, trading in skyscrapers in downtown Manhattan for the mountains of Utah.
Looking for veteran presence to add to their young core, the Utah Mammoth added the 33-year-old Trocheck via trade from the New York Rangers on July 1 in exchange for defenceman Sean Durzi, forward Cole Beaudoin and a 2027 third-round pick.
The Mammoth made the playoffs last season for the first time since the franchise moved from Arizona to Utah before losing in the first round to the Vegas Golden Knights.
Trocheck said Tuesday in a radio interview on OverDrive that he and his family have been in Salt Lake City for about three weeks with his kids already in school for the year.
“It’s been great so far,” said Trocheck of the move. “It’s so beautiful out here, being able to wake up and see the mountains every day has been awesome.”
Trocheck missed 14 games early in the 2025-26 season with a severe lung infection but still managed 16 goals with 53 points in 67 games with the Rangers.
“Another ultimate teammate,” Mammoth general manager Bill Armstrong said of adding Trocheck on July 2. “A guy that’s a glue guy. He’ll do anything for his teammates. He’s good off the draw, he’s a right-handed draw. He can get in the bumper and score some goals.
“He really can just fit around people and do whatever needs to be done at the time. He did that with Team USA to win a gold medal, but he’s done that for a lot of his career.”
The Mammoth open the 2026-27 season at home against the Chicago Blackhawks on Oct. 1 as the NHL shifts to having 84 regular-season games on the calendar for the first time since the 1993-94 campaign.
Trocheck, who is playing for a West Coast team for the first time in his career, says he’s in favour of the NHL adding more regular-season games and cutting down the pre-season slate.
“I think everybody wants to get going,” said Trocheck. “These are kind of the dog days of summer where you have these couple weeks left, you’re back in your city but kind of just going through captain’s practices or whatever it is before camp starts.
“I think having a quicker, shorter camp and quicker pre-season is favourable for everyone.”
While the Rangers struggled last season, missing the playoffs for a second straight year, Trocheck still experienced one of the ultimate career highs by helping the Americans capture Olympic gold in men’s hockey for the first time since 1980 in February.
“It’s so wild,” said Trocheck of the experience. “It was so much fun and so memorable and one of the coolest, if not the coolest, experience of my life.”
