Rangers may have reached turning point with trade of Jacob Trouba

Friday was a difficult day for the Rangers, but ultimately it may end up being a turning point in their season.

After captain Jacob Trouba was traded to the Anaheim Ducks earlier in the day, the Rangers looked like a team that had a burden removed in their 4-2 victory over the Penguins on Friday night. They outshot the Penguins 32-22, out-attempted them 59-54 and had a manageable number of turnovers (18, compared to Pittsburgh’s 19).

“I think we looked much better than we usually played the last month,’’ said Artemi Panarin, who had two goals and showed off his famous leg kick celebration after the first one. The kick, which he hadn’t done in quite a while, was a release of emotion after an emotional day, he said.

“Yeah. Sometimes it’s just about the moment,’’ he said.

Said Vincent Trocheck: “There has been a cloud over our heads for a little while.’’

With the win Friday and games Sunday against Seattle and Monday against last-overall Chicago, the now captain-less Rangers have a chance to put this grim first third of the season behind them.

When asked if Trouba’s trade helped quiet things down around the team, coach Peter Laviolette said at Saturday’s optional practice, “I think so. It’s always a tough day. Jacob . . . he’s a terrific teammate and person and he did a really good job here with the New York Rangers and being the captain. It’s an emotional day for everybody.”

General manager Chris Drury tried to trade the 30-year-old defenseman during the summer, but Trouba blocked that with the limited no-trade protection he had in his contract. The story got out that Trouba didn’t want to be traded because his wife, Dr. Kelly Tyson-Trouba, still had a year left on her hospital residency in New York and he didn’t want to move.

Trouba wasn’t happy that his wife’s name got mentioned publicly, but he dealt with that, and he was resigned to the fact that he definitely would be moved after the season. But he said on his Zoom call with the Anaheim media on Friday that being a lame-duck captain proved to be difficult.

“Leading was a little bit harder for me in that situation, knowing things that were public,’’ he said. “If they weren’t public and other guys didn’t know, I think it would have been a little bit of an easier situation for me. But things unfolded how they did.’’

No doubt things would have been cleaner if Drury had been able to trade Trouba over the summer to a team not on his no-trade list, or, failing that, if he’d bought him out of the final two years of his deal and made Trouba a free agent. Perhaps Trouba could have signed a bargain-basement one-year deal with the Islanders or Devils and stayed in the area, and the Rangers could have moved on.

But they have moved on now, and regardless of how it happened, getting Trouba off their books opens things up for the team. They ended up not having to retain any of Trouba’s $8 million salary-cap hit, which means Drury now has all kinds of salary-cap room to work with come the March 7 trade deadline.

According to PuckPedia, the Rangers have $6.97 million in available cap space after off-loading Trouba and taking back defenseman Urho Vaakanainen ($1.1 million) in the deal. And because cap space accrues on a daily basis, they will have an estimated $21.9 million in available space at the deadline. That will be more than enough to get a first-line winger, a top-four left defenseman, an insurance- policy third-line center or whatever Drury deems necessary to bolster the roster.

So as ruthless as cutting ties with Trouba may seem, it could end up being the new start to their Stanley Cup aspirations that the Blueshirts were looking for.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.