He has gone one-on-one with him before in battle drills and in full-ice scrimmages over his five seasons in the league.
But Alexis Lafrenière has never before come up against Jacob Trouba for real. That will change when the Blueshirts face the Ducks and their former captain here on Friday, three-plus months following their messy and public divorce.
“I know he’s physical, I know he likes to play hard, so if you always have to be aware if you’re out there against him,” No. 13 told The Post following Thursday’s practice in LA ahead of this matchup. “You don’t want to put yourself in a bad spot.
“I’m going to play my game and be ready for him.”
Trouba, who was traded to the Ducks on Dec. 6 for a fourth-rounder and defenseman Urho Vaakanainen, shared dinner with a number of his former teammates on Thursday, The Post learned. The former captain was extremely popular with his teammates during his five-plus season tenure that commenced in 2019-20.
Jacob Trouba delivers a check during the Rangers’ game against the Ducks on March 16.
“He was great for me from the second I came onto the team,” said Lafrenière, a 2020-21 rookie following his first-overall selection the previous draft. “He was one of the older guys who took me under his wing a little bit and helped me both on and off the ice.
“He was like that for the four years-ish we were together. He was great to me. For sure, we miss him but it’s going to be good to see him and play against him.
“Weird, too,” said No. 13. “For sure.”
Jacob Trouba gets into a fight during the Rangers’ game against the Canadiens on Nov. 30, 2024.
The Rangers have lost four of their past five in regulation. They are 3-6-2 over their past 11 contests. Anaheim is out of the playoff race, but they are also only four points behind the Blueshirts with a game in hand in the overall standings. The Ducks have gone 21-20-5 with Trouba in the lineup while the Rangers are 21-22-5 since the trade.
The Ducks hammered the Bruins 6-2 on Wednesday, have won two of their past three and are 3-2-1 in their past six. If the Rangers had that recent record, they’d be a playoff team.
“We played hard the other night, but I think everyone was disappointed we didn’t win a hockey game,” head coach Peter Laviolette said in reference to Tuesday’s 3-1 empty-net abetted defeat to the Kings. “But we talked about this today about just needing to take care of our own business and own stuff.
Jacob Trouba skates during the Rangers’ game against the Blues on Nov. 25, 2024.
“That was a chance for us to move [into a playoff spot] but here we are still on the outside. Everybody [Montreal and the Islanders] lost, right? If the Flyers beat Montreal [Thursday] and we win [in Anaheim], we’re back above the line. We’re there.
“That’s the messaging. That we have to help ourselves first. You look at the standings and you see it, right, but we have to help ourselves.”
Laviolette inherited Trouba as captain a year ago. The coach never had a bad word to say about the defenseman even after the relationship between the captain and the organization deteriorated after GM Chris Drury attempted to deal him early in the offseason after Trouba’s no-move clause transferred to a limited no-trade on July 1.
Jacob Trouba skates during the Ducks’ game against the Blues on March 12.
“For me it was a relationship where I saw he was constantly trying to learn both at the rink and away from the rink how to be the best leader he could be for the New York Rangers,” the head coach said. “Our team experienced a lot of success last year and he was a big part of that with what he did for us.
“It’s tough when players leave and go in different directions but that’s the nature of this business sometimes. But my time and experience with Jacob was successful.”
Trouba, who wears No. 65, has lined up on the right with Olen Zellweger. He will presumably be matched against either Lafrenière, on Thursday’s practice line with J.T. Miller in the middle and Will Cuylle on the right, or Artemi Panarin, who skated with Vincent Trocheck and Brennan Othmann.
Panarin, of course, went against Trouba for four seasons before joining forces on Broadway for their five-plus seasons.
“With guys who are physical like that, you have to be able to see the ice,” Panarin said. “Head up, you know? Probably 40 percent of the teams have someone who hits like that so I don’t have anything special for him.”
The follow-up question was whether Trouba might have something special for Panarin.
“We’ll see,” said No. 10. “I hope not.”
