FRESH REPORT: I feel betrayed by Florida Panthers for their harsh decision.
Jacob Trouba has served as captain of the New York Rangers for the past two seasons, and is the 28th player to wear the C in franchise history. It’s no small task to captain an Original Six franchise, not the least of which one located in a city with the expectations and pressure of New York.
In the opinion of Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice, who previously coached Trouba with the Winnipeg Jets, the Blueshirts defenseman fits the role nicely.
“What I think Jake needed to do was find his place,” Maurice said Wednesday before Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final between the Rangers and Panthers. “And he has grown into a dominant defenseman and a captain.”
Trouba was awarded the 2024 Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award on May 14th, honoring his leadership on and off the ice this past season.
“I don’t know that at 18-19 years old, you can pick that out of anybody. It would be a very rare case where a guy walks in, and they say, ‘You can tell.’ Usually, that coach is full of shit,” laughed Maurice. “But with Jake, he grew into it.”
Relationship between Rangers captain, Panthers coach extends to days together in Winnipeg
It’s been a long road to get to this point for the 11-year veteran, whose career began as a 19-year-old with the Jets in 2013. Maurice took over as head coach shortly after, replacing the fired Claude Noel in January after a slow start.
“When he came in, we weren’t very good,” Maurice explained. “Hence, we drafted high enough to get a player like Jake Trouba.”
Winnipeg drafted Trouba with the ninth overall pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. Less than two years later, he debuted, slotting into a D-core that already boasted a top pairing of Dustin Byfuglien and Toby Enstrom.
“When he comes into the League, he’s a shooter, he’s an offensive guy, he’s a power-play guy, and in his mind, he was still there,” Maurice recalled. “But he’s a right-handed shot and I’ve got Dustin Byfuglien, so he’s not getting out there on the power play.”
Trouba scored 10 goals and 29 points as a rookie, finishing sixth for the Calder Trophy, but did not log a shift on the power play.
“He wanted to play more,” said Maurice. “He was good about it. Like I enjoyed him. He hit hard, competes — a bit old school.”
The blue-line pairing of Byfuglien and Enstrom allowed Trouba to see plenty of time with fellow up-and-comer Josh Morrissey, a combination that would help redefine Trouba’s role and evolve his game.
“We end up playing Jake and Josh against the other team’s best by the time he was 22-years-old, so he got an unusual proving ground,” Maurice explained. “We made the playoffs in those years when he started to get a little stronger.”
It culminated in a 2018 trip to the Western Conference Final against the Vegas Golden Knights, where Maurice described Trouba and Morrisey as his “shutdown pair.”
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