‘Part of Rangers culture forever’: On Vincent Trocheck and the Steven McDonald Award
Conor McDonald is unique among Rangers fans. He’s grown up in the spotlight of Madison Square Garden, on the ice every one of his 37 years with his family to present the most important award anyone on the team can receive.
He was there again, of course, on April 7, in his New York Police Department uniform. When the first few Steven McDonald Extra Effort Awards were handed out, Conor’s mother, Patti, held him in her arms as she stood beside Steven’s wheelchair. Steven McDonald lived the last 30 years of his life in that chair after being shot in the line of duty on July 12, 1986; Patti was pregnant with Conor at the time.
Two weeks ago, Conor held his two-year-old daughter, Grady Ann, in his arms as the award named for his father was handed out for the 36th time. Steven McDonald died on Jan. 10, 2017, but it is still a night to honor him.
“My dad loved that night, it was so exciting watching him put his uniform on, getting ready to say what he was going to say on the ice,” Conor McDonald said. “Every day after he was shot was excruciating for my dad. Nights like the award night kept him going.”
Two weeks ago, Vincent Trocheck won the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award. Trocheck is only in his second Rangers season, but he has quickly come to understand what winning that award means.
It’s the only team award voted on by the fans. It means, in so many words, you’ve arrived. You’re a player that the Garden faithful can see goes above and beyond, on the ice and off. You’re a true Ranger.
“That’s the way I always looked at it,” said Ryan Callahan, one of two Rangers to win the Steven McDonald Award four times. “You’re being recognized by the fans, they appreciate the way that you play, how hard you’re working. I always felt a part of the city and the team from the minute I came up to the Rangers, but when you win that award, when you get to meet the (McDonald) family, to have met Steven as often as I did. It’s all just very humbling.”
Trocheck is a unique choice. The award winners on the current team — Ryan Lindgren, Chris Kreider, Adam Fox and Mika Zibanejad (twice) — all came up through the Rangers starting either as draft picks or young NHLers. Ranger fans have seen them grow and mature.
Trocheck came in as GM Chris Drury’s biggest free-agent swing prior to the 2022-23 season, signing a seven-year contract to essentially replace popular Ranger Ryan Strome as the No. 2 center. It wasn’t a bad first Rangers season for Trocheck by any means last year, but he didn’t mesh with Artemi Panarin the way anyone hoped and Trocheck wasn’t a big enough factor in the first-round playoff exit, a disappointing space in which he had plenty of company.
This year has been hugely different. Trocheck came to training camp with a higher level of comfort and a commitment to playing whatever role Peter Laviolette had in store for him, which at the start of the season, was in the third center hole, alongside Will Cuylle and Blake Wheeler. Within a month, he was back with Panarin. And by the time the season ended, Trocheck was the most essential center on the roster, surpassing even Zibanejad in his effectiveness.
“I worked very hard to improve everything I could this offseason and it didn’t matter to me who I was going to play with,” Trocheck said. “I just wanted to show what I’d worked on in the offseason. Then I started playing with those same guys again, just building the chemistry. It definitely helped having Laf (Alexis Lafrenière) on the other side, having that more consistent presence there. I don’t think there’s a need to kind of stop and wonder why it’s worked — we know why. It’s because we’ve all worked hard to build that chemistry.”
Panarin was the lead dog all season long, posting the second-best scoring season in Rangers history with 120 points and a personal-best 49 goals. Trocheck also had a career high with 77 points, including 52 at even strength. Trocheck was also third in the league on faceoffs, winning 58.7 percent of his draws — only John Tavares (59.3 percent) won more draws among centers who took at least 1,000 faceoffs this season. He was also fifth in the league among forwards in ice time, playing 21:27 a night — only Mitch Marner, Brandon Hagel and Trocheck averaged over 16 minutes at even strength while also averaging at least 1:35 of penalty-kill ice time a game.
That line was a force again in Game 1 against the Caps, with Trocheck setting up Panarin for the eventual game-winner in the second. That line, per Clear Sight Analytics, produced 182 high-danger scoring chances this regular season, behind only two other forward lines: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins-Connor McDavid–Zach Hyman with the Oilers (208) and Jonathan Drouin–Nathan MacKinnon–Mikko Rantanen with the Avalanche (197).
In short, Trocheck earned his two dozen shifts a night. Laviolette noticed, his teammates noticed, the NHL noticed — Trocheck went to his first All-Star Game in January — and, obviously, the fans noticed.
“The way this organization works, it can take guys some time to adjust,” Jimmy Vesey said of Trocheck, whom Vesey has known since they played youth hockey together. “Coming here with a family, buying a house, changing up all that, it’s a lot. To me, he looks a lot more comfortable this year. I think there was some more line-juggling last year too, that probably didn’t help much. But with the contract he signed, what he was brought here to do — he’s been a perfect fit.”
The list of Rangers who have won the Steven McDonald Award goes from superstars like Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Brian Leetch on down to grittier players like Sandy McCarthy, Jed Ortmeyer and Lindgren, last year’s winner. Conor McDonald said he and his parents have spent time with all of them and every single one appreciated meeting his folks and seeing what it meant to the Garden and the organization when Steven came out onto the ice and spoke.
“On a personal level, these are some amazing people,” Conor McDonald said. “Adam Graves (the only five-time winner) is just a person I admire, the way he’s been since his playing days and afterwards. I still talk to him every couple of weeks. Knowing longtime Rangers like Chris Kreider and Mika, the guys who got to meet my dad, that’s special. Chris checks in with me every so often. I think those guys understand how much my dad loved the Rangers, loved this city and loved being in the NYPD.”
Conor McDonald got to do something he’d never done before at MetLife Stadium prior to the outdoor game against the Islanders. A last-minute ask from the team brought him into the locker room to read the starting roster prior to that Stadium Series game, which also featured the Rangers walking into the stadium alongside members of the NYPD and Fire Department of New York hockey teams.
“You don’t have to be here very long to understand what the family means to the Rangers and the fans,” Trocheck said. “You get to hear (Conor) speak and it means something.”
There have been times that the Steven McDonald Award has been the last good note on a sour Rangers season — more than a few in recent memory, in fact. Now, it’s more a way to put an emotional bow on a successful season, the start of something bigger. Conor McDonald’s daughter was born during the 2022 run to the Eastern Conference final and his own memories of the award as a kid usually end up straight back to 1994, one of the years Graves won the award.
“I say it and I really do mean it — this award kept my dad alive for many years,” Conor said. “Anywhere he went, down the boardwalk in Long Beach or wherever, people would talk to him about the Rangers and about the award. When I got to speak that day (at MetLife Stadium), I told the guys there’s no place my dad would have wanted to be, especially in the playoffs, than by the Zamboni entrance watching the big games.
“The award really has become part of the Rangers culture and when you win it, I feel like you become part of the Rangers culture forever.”