New York Rangers basic supervisor Chris Drury has made it clear, by repeating historical past, that his facet are open for enterprise because the Olympic break and commerce deadline strategy.
Artemi Panarin shall be gone. It’s doubtless {that a} raft of veterans will comply with him out the door. Will former first total choose Alexis Lafreniere be a kind of leaving Madison Sq. Backyard?
Alexis Lafreniere has foundational potential
There may be a military of people that will inform you that the Rangers faltered in taking Lafreniere with the primary choose in 2020. He was, although, the consensus high choose, irrespective of who held that choice. Over three seasons with Rimouski Oceanic within the QMJHL, Lafreniere racked up 327 factors in 193 video games, incomes comparisons to David Pasternak and Alex Ovechkin.
Lafreniere is clearly an impressive expertise. He possesses a depraved wrister, nice imaginative and prescient, can stickhandle with the most effective of them and might activate a dime. It was solely a few seasons in the past that Lafreniere emerged as a 22-year-old, posting 57 factors in 82 video games. Extra impressively, he was arguably the Rangers finest skater all through the playoffs, particularly in opposition to the reigning – and eventual – champion Florida Panthers, with 14 factors over 16 video games.
That was two seasons in the past, and he has struggled since (hardly the one Ranger to take action). However when he turns it on, he’s completely world class. His efficiency in opposition to Florida within the Winter Traditional was distinctive, main the Rangers to a dominant upset win with the primary three-assist recreation of his skilled profession.
The NHL is the primary time in his hockey life that Lafreniere hasn’t been the clear finest participant on his workforce. As a lot as a rebuilding and/or retooling Rangers workforce would possibly battle to bury the biscuit, may Lafreniere start to search out himself once more when there isn’t any Panarin or Vincent Trochek to dominate the play? Does he embrace duty? Do we start to see these elite turns? That visionary playmaking? The laser guided wrist photographs?
Most significantly, will we see Lafreniere regain his edge? The killer intuition that made him a high choose?
What if he doesn’t? What if this often sensible however typically infuriating participant is solely what Lafreniere is? Even when he plateaus as a 60-point-per-season participant, at a $7.45m cap hit, that’s completely acceptable within the new cap setting.
Is Alexis Lafreniere a product of his environment?
Again in 2023, this author questioned Lafreniere’s off-ice professionalism and skill to be a cog in a machine versus the fulcrum of an assault. Whereas he could discover a new gear when the offense is constructed round him, it’s extra doubtless that Lafreniere’s laissez-faire angle to the game signifies that he’ll doubtless by no means attain his prodigious potential.
That additionally raises the query: is Lafreniere a symptom, fairly than a trigger?
Is “‘Laffy’s” finest season merely a results of taking part in alongside Trochek (77 factors that season) and Panarin (120 factors), all three having fun with profession years? Given Panarin and Trocheck have continued to provide at a stable tempo even because the Rangers kind has plummeted over the previous two campaigns, Lafreniere has fallen away sharply, suggesting that he isn’t a driver of play. Fairly, he’s a symptom. If his workforce play effectively, he shines. If not, Lafreniere struggles alongside them.
To that finish, if each of these two get moved, does Lafreniere battle additional with out elite playmakers subsequent to him? Fairly than embracing the duty of main a line, does he wilt beneath the strain?
The decision
Lafreniere’s commerce worth has by no means been decrease. An absence of acceptable affords for a proficient, if perplexing, participant could lead the Rangers to carry him and see what he can do with elevated duty.
That mentioned, the Rangers tradition is evidently horrible. Lafreniere doesn’t strike anyone as the kind of persona who can lead a locker room reboot. Does that imply Drury takes successful now, understanding that his worth may probably drop additional?
It appears extra doubtless that the Rangers solely transfer on a commerce with a stable return, which is unlikely to eventuate. That mentioned, it solely takes one Lafreniere believer.
