The New York Rangers have spiraled out of control in the 2025-26 NHL season. There is simply no denying it. Mike Sullivan’s arrival has done little to change the course of the franchise, and the writing is now on the wall for a once-dubbed franchise player like Artemi Panarin.
Watching from a distance—2,785 miles, to be precise—is someone who knows what playing for the Rangers means, both during the good times and the bad. Jacob Trouba, now on the Anaheim Ducks, had been in Manhattan long enough to witness the Blueshirts’ own NHL version of the booming days and the Great Depression.
As he enjoys the rise of the Ducks in Orange County, Trouba couldn’t help but drop a sharp message, one whose timing is no coincidence. With Panarin’s next destination up in the air, Trouba issued a “Greetings from Anaheim” postcard that only rubs salt in the Rangers’ fresh wounds.
“If I’m gonna be honest I’m having a little more fun than I had the last couple years,” Jacob Trouba admitted in dialogue with NHL on TNT’s crew before the Ducks’ 4-2 triumph over the Seattle Kraken.
Jacob Trouba #65 of the Anaheim Ducks
Bad blood between Trouba and Rangers
If there is one sport where being named a captain bears special meaning, it’s definitely hockey. When the Rangers named Trouba their 28th captain in franchise history in 2022, it seemed only retirement would do them part.
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If the veteran blueliner were to be traded, most fans believed it’d be with mutual interest from both sides to move on. Instead, once Trouba’s production took a hit, the organization and fanbase turned on him, and that was all she wrote. Trouba was traded to the Ducks midway through the 2024-25 campaign.
Over a year has passed, but his exit from New York City is still pinned on Trouba’s bulletin board, driving him to prove his former organization wrong.
Backfired on the Rangers
At the time, being shipped off to Anaheim felt like being relegated to a rebuilding team still a few years away from posing any threat. Meanwhile, the Rangers looked like a dormant contender, one that needed a wake-up call to get back on its feet. Moving on from the captain could be just that. Instead, the effect was completely opposite.
Trouba rediscovered his best version with the Ducks, with the team currently on pace to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs. As for the Rangers, nothing has gone their way, and it feels like any move they make comes back to bite them.
As Panarin’s trade talks reportedly narrow down to six teams in the NHL, the fear of this move backfiring is ever-present in The Big Apple. Still, New York has put itself in a position where only a trade can help it get out.
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