The Ducks have acquired defenseman Jacob Trouba from the New York Rangers in exchange for defenseman Urho Vaakanainen and a 2025 fourth-round draft pick, both clubs confirmed Friday.
Trouba, 30, captained the Rangers since 2022 but had been shopped since at least June, with his partial no-trade clause complicating matters. So, too, did the medical career of his wife, Kelly Tyson-Trouba, who had followed Trouba from his first NHL stop, Winnipeg, to New York. After giving birth to their first child in January, Tyson-Trouba was set to complete a residency in New York soon after the end of this coming season.
“There were discussions this past summer with my wife and my family, and Anaheim was one of the teams on the list in which we were both very interested in, that worked for our lives and both of our careers,” said Trouba, who compared the Ducks to the Rangers when he joined them as an up-and-coming team. “It’s a team that’s right on the cusp of taking the next step and being really great, I think.”
With the Rangers, Trouba was a teammate with Ducks forwards Ryan Strome (three seasons) and Frank Vatrano (part of one season). The move to Anaheim didn’t gain traction until the middle of this week, he said.
The Rangers had hoped to offload his $8 million salary cap hit for this season and next ahead of free agency this past summer, but Trouba said he prioritized the bigger picture in his decision to stay put.
“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 a hundred times over again. I don’t feel bad about that, I was happy about it,” Trouba said.
“I don’t like that it was made public or how everything unfolded so publicly, but I guess that’s part of New York and what happens,” said Trouba, who called being fired from Madison Square Garden “a rite of passage” on Friday. “It made it difficult to play with that hanging over everything. The result is the result and I guess I’m happy with moving forward, but I’m not overly thrilled with how it went down.”
Trouba was also “less than thrilled” about the “unfortunate end” to his time in a city where he discovered the art world and made deep personal connections. As they did with forward Barclay Goodrow this summer (he was effectively exiled to San Jose), the Rangers put the possibility on the table of a prearranged placement on waivers to circumvent Trouba’s trade protection.
“Yeah, it was a threat,” Trouba said. “Yesterday morning, it was, ‘Accept this trade or we’re scratching you,’ I said, ‘OK.’ Then it was, ‘Accept this trade or you’re going on waivers,’ and I said, ‘OK.’ Then it got to a point where I got comfortable with Anaheim.”
For Vaakanainen, 25, this trade ended a tenure with the Ducks that began with the Hampus Lindholm deal in 2022 and was complicated by injuries. The former first-rounder formed a solid shutdown tandem with Radko Gudas at times last year, but found himself lost in a crowd of left-shooting defensemen this season.
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Trouba, a right-handed shot with the sort of reputation for crunching (and sometimes questionable) hits that Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek has gravitated toward, has six points in 24 games this season, all assists. He’s most known for being in the top 10 across the span of his career in both hits and blocked shots. He’s also been suspended twice and fined four times by the NHL.
“Jacob is a highly respected player in this league whose character and leadership qualities on and off the ice are second to none,” Verbeek said. “We believe Jacob has many more years in this league and hope he is a big part of our future success. It’s rare you are able to acquire a player with Jacob’s experience, stature and ability. On the ice, he competes every shift, leads by example and is a presence on the blue line every night.”
Trouba’s career high in scoring came in his final season in Winnipeg, where he posted 50 points in 2018-19. He put up 39 points three seasons ago when he also posted a plus-25 rating and the Rangers reached the conference finals. Last season, he won the Mark Messier Leadership Award after the Rangers won the Presidents’ Trophy and reached conference finals again.
“He gives us a lot of depth on defense now. He’s a really good penalty killer. He’s got some really underrated offensive skills that he probably hasn’t shown in the last year or so,” Verbeek said. “Overall, it gives our team a lot more rigid, physical play.”