Vincent Trocheck reveals ‘very scary’ health issue that hospitalized him early in Rangers’ season

Vincent Trocheck missed 14 games early on this season with what the Rangers called an upper-body injury.

At the time, Trocheck himself thought he was only dealing with back spasms, but as it turns out it ended up being a much more serious issue.

The 32-year-old had to undergo surgery, and was in the hospital for about a week after viral bacteria got into his lung.

“This happened before the first game,” he said Friday. “I wasn’t sure what it was -- played the first game it got worse, played in Buffalo got a cross-check in that area and whatever fluid was in there, it was in bubbles and I guess the bubble burst and it spread.

“I had to have surgery to get the fluid removed, had chest tubes, so I was in the hospital for about a week, but very weird -- it wasn’t an injury, no one really knows how it came about -- it was very scary, I thought I was dying.”

Trocheck said the bacteria was still there a little bit following the procedure, but he felt back to normal pretty quickly after resuming hockey activities.

“It just gradually got better,” he explained. “It was really just a lung capacity thing, like once I was back out there on the ice and skated a couple of times it was more just getting my stamina back than anything else.”

The veteran’s stressful season would only continue from there, as with the team entering another retool he found his name at the forefront of rumors leading right up until the NHL trade deadline.

Chris Druryset an extremely high asking price for the do-it-all veteran leader, and decided to hold onto him for the reminder of the season.

“It’s different whenever you are the one in the headlines,” Trocheck said. “I’ve been around long enough, I’ve had my name in headlines for trade purposes more, so I’m used to it -- it’s part of the business you sign up for.”

As far as this summer, though, even Trocheck doesn’t know what’s in store.