I never ripped on him. The criticism was always unfair. Too many people looked at his 75 point season and had expectations that it would continue, then he regressed (due to injury, lost confidence, whatever you want to pin it on) and everyone jumped on him. He's still a good player, just not where he was in 17-18.
Based on the conversations we've had in GDTs over the years, I don't feel the 75pts season is what people are drooling over. He was already declining and changing his playing style at that point, through injuries and mentally.
The majority of us fell in love with him during the run to the 2016 playoffs, that was prime Trocheck to me. As some of you may remember, I was if not the biggest, one of the biggest Trocheck critics here (which can partly be blamed on watching a certain up-coming perennial Selke candidate playing in the same line-up), up to around the TDL that year. Trocheck became a regular around November/December, I think? Before that the effort and skill was there, but he had the same defensive brainfarts that we all know too well from recent years. Then something clicked, I don't know what happened, Jokinen maybe got to him? Anyway he stopped puck watching and became a really good 2-way player overnight, IMO challenging Smith and Jokinen for 2nd place. I was skeptical at first, he'd shown flashes the previous season, but ultimately I had to admit that he'd changed. That 2nd half of the 2015-16 season Trocheck was awesome. Then that ankle injury happened, rushing back to play in the playoffs may have affected him to this day, who knows. 2016-17 was optional Rowe defence, I feel this planted the idea of focusing on offense to him. 2017-18 was a great season points wise, but he was already putrid defensively back then. And well, we all know the rest.
As much as I hated Trocheck's stupid decisions at both ends of the rink and tendency to play hero
ball puck, I still hope he can turn it around, because that 2015-16 Trocheck was a treat to watch. If he can become even 75% of that player, that's a good 2C on most teams. With that said, do I think that's likely to happen? Nope.
