One Year Later: The Jacob Trouba Trade

By Michael Walters

One year ago, the Anaheim Ducks acquired defenseman Jacob Trouba from the New York Rangers in exchange for defenseman Urho Vaakanainen and a 2025 fourth round draft pick. The Ducks later reacquired this pick from New York in the Chris Kreider deal that happened the following June. There was no salary retained by either side in the trade.

The Ducks had originally acquired Vaakanainen from the Boston Bruins as part of the Hampus Lindholm trade. With Boston, Vaakanainen had spent most of his time in the AHL and only appeared in a handful of NHL games. The Ducks tried giving him more of a chance, but he unfortunately was injured for much of his time with Anaheim. However, Vaakanainen did appear in a career-high 68 games with the Ducks in the 2023-2024 season. Overall, he played in 110 games for the Ducks, more than half of his NHL career total, and scored one goal and 19 points.

The Rangers had originally acquired Trouba from the Winnipeg Jets in the summer of 2019. He was named one of the team’s alternate captains the following season, and was named their captain starting in the 2022-2023 season. He scored a career-high 11 goals in the 2021-2022 season, and his 39 points that season were the second most of his career. Trouba isn’t known for his offensive numbers; instead, he’s more known for his physical play on the ice.

Anaheim had a very young defensive core at the time of this trade, and they were looking to bring in a veteran presence. The Rangers had actually been trying to move Trouba the previous summer, but were unable to find a trading partner. Trouba had a no trade clause and had to waive it in order for the deal to go through.

With Anaheim, Trouba played in 53 games to end the season and scored a goal and eight points. Despite playing so few games, he still finished fifth on the Ducks in hits with 125. Every player who finished with more played in more games than Trouba did, except for Ross Johnston.

This season, Trouba has stepped his game up tremendously, and been Anaheim’s best defenseman some nights. However, he’s also had some rough nights, like in the recent loss to Utah. Overall, he’s played in 28 games and scored four goals and 13 points. Besides increasing his offensive production, he’s also second on the team in hits, behind only Jonston. Trouba is second on the team in total ice time and shorthanded ice time, with only Jackson LaCombe beating him in both categories, showing how valuable he’s been to Anaheim’s defensive core this season.

With New York, Vaakanainen played in 46 games to end the season, and scored a career-high two goals and 15 points. Between Anaheim and New York, he finished the year with 16 points. On average, Vaakanainen played close to 17 minutes a night for the Rangers. This season, he’s played in 16 games and recorded three assists, while averaging 14:33 a game, good for seventh among New York defensemen. He’s primarily been used as the team’s sixth or seventh defenseman.

At first glance, a year later, this deal looks like a huge victory for the Ducks. They received a top four defenseman for a fourth round pick and a bottom pairing defenseman. However, there are a couple of things that even this deal out when examined more closely. The first part is the cap hit.

The fact that Anaheim was unable to either get the Rangers to retain part of Trouba’s cap hit or get some kind of pick or prospect for taking on Trouba’s full salary is a mark against the Ducks in this trade. However, if they didn’t take the entire cap hit, it sounds like New York probably would have put Trouba on waivers and someone else probably would have claimed him before the Ducks would have had a chance to do so. Trouba hadn’t been playing well for the Rangers and they were ready to move on from him, so getting anything back for their captain was seen as a win for New York.

Second, once Trouba’s cap hit was gone, the Rangers were able to sign goaltender Igor Shesterkin to a record-breaking extension. If Trouba can keep playing at a high level through the rest of this season, then the Ducks can look back at this deal as an absolute win. Trouba will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. Anaheim will likely try to extend him, but hopefully it will be at a smaller cap hit than he currently carries.

For the Rangers, while this deal wasn’t a big win, it certainly wasn’t a loss. They got out from a big cap hit, didn’t have to give up anything extra to make it happen, and got back a useful defenseman in the process. They then went out and signed their star goaltender. Overall, it was a good deal for the Ducks, with the potential to become a great one if Trouba keeps playing at a high level, and a decent one for the Rangers.

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December 7th, 2025