Nope, I never did massive amount of research on him for the ATD or followed other discussion closely.
I can't say that I watched him during his prime (far to young). The only Trottier I remember was his few years in Pittsburgh at the twilight of his career. Full disclaimer as I actually believe in transparency.
I know what Trottier was as a hockey player. He was an "old school player" (with a damn good amount of skill to boot) who excelled at both ends of the rink. Very physical, good in the dot.
He had an amazing 3 year run during the Islanders 1st 3 Cups. Nobody is going to say otherwise.
Missed a handful of games in 83, which dampens him a bit and one of my favorite all time depth players, Bob Bourne, stole the show. That year was about Bourne, Bossy, Potvin, and the Sutter's.
And then in 84 had a pretty poor playoff run, where his scoring was way down, and he spent 49 minutes in the penalty box while his line bled goals against the Oilers in the final. And if I recall correctly, he wasn't exactly dominant against Montreal in the round before that.
Obviously he won 2 Cups late in his career with Pitt, but was a depth C, a vet glue guy. He probably did his most work as a leader of a pretty young Penguins team, along with Joe Mullen of course.
Besides that there really isn't much else of note in his playoff portfolio. I don't think that's a harsh statement.
Personally i think Potvin was the rock of those great Islander teams. But that's just my opinion based on a lot of hockey research. Obviously I wasn't able to witness it.
Edit: And i forgot to say, you also have to take into the scoring averages in the early 80's. They were ridiculously high compared to the past 10 years in the NHL. So you can't simply look at Trottier's raw #'s and compare them to say somebody that has played in the past decade.