New York Rangers star Vincent Trocheck has revealed he overcame a bacterial lung infection earlier in the season which at one stage left him feeling like he was dying.
Trocheck missed a month early in the 2025-26 campaign with what the Rangers called an upper-body injury at the time. However, it turns out he wasn’t really injured.
The 32-year-old center said on Friday that he had an infection in one of his lungs that initially felt like back spasms and spread when he took a cross check to the area during a game at Buffalo in October.
‘Whatever fluid was in there, it´s like bubbles, and I guess the bubble burst and it spread, so then it just got a lot worse,’ Trocheck explained. ‘I had a lot of fluid around my lung, so I had to have surgery to get the fluid removed – chest tubes, whatever.’
Hospitalized for roughly a week, Trocheck admitted the ordeal was a terrifying one.
‘It was very scary,’ he added. ‘I thought I was dying.’
Rangers star Vincent Trocheck overcame a bacterial lung infection earlier in the season
Trocheck, pictured with wife Hillary, says the infection left him feeling like he was ‘dying’
He returned on November 10 and played 65 of the remaining 66 games for New York, while also helping the US win gold at the Olympics earlier this year.
Yet his extended absence was a reason why the Rangers’ season went off the rails early on.
‘It didn’t help,’ coach Mike Sullivan said. ‘Every team has to endure injuries. We’re no different in that regard.
‘What I’ll tell you is that some injuries are easier to endure than others, and we had some key ones at certain times in the season that made it tough.
‘Troch is obviously a really good player, an important element of this team.’
The Rangers endured a miserable year, winning just 34 of their 82 games and missing out on the playoffs after finishing rock bottom of the Metropolitan Division.
Troch, who has just wrapped up his 14th season in the NHL, has spent the last four years in New York after previous stints with the Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers.
