The Rangers are going to hand the reins of the team to their young core in the coming years. Alexis Lafreniere is possibly the biggest non-Adam Fox piece in that transition. The #1 overall pick is tremendously skilled and could be a top winger in the game. The problem is he hasn’t taken a step forward, and many of his easily identified deficiencies haven’t been improved upon. Only more ice time has led to an increase in his scoring stats as well.
Expectations on Lafreniere weren’t fair to start, but that is mostly because of the excitement of the first ever top pick in organizational history. He was expected to be a game breaker, and he simply isn’t. He wasn’t a draft day mistake, but it does look like Covid impacted some late season scouting. But while he’s not exactly improving in his weaknesses, we are seeing better offensive play, at least in his counting stats.
Lafreniere put up a career high 39 points and 23 assists to go with his 16 goals last season. His 5v5 ice time increased by a full minute per game, and his powerplay ice time by 11 seconds per game (per Natural Stat Trick). Essentially, he was getting an extra shift or two at even strength, and the same number of shifts on the powerplay. But Lafreniere did get some time bouncing around between PP1 and PP2, and was able to get his first powerplay goal in his three year career. He scored twice more with the man advantage.
But let’s take a step back. For starters, shame on the Rangers for not finding a way to get their top pick more powerplay time. It’s easy to explain away the 2021-2022 season, since PP1 was lethal. But the 2022-2023 version, while good, had long stretches of borderline ineptitude. There were ways to make things work, they just weren’t tried.
There is fault on Gerard Gallant and the Rangers for sure. But there is also fault on Lafreniere. We cannot ignore the rumors about his commitment issues off the ice, even if it is unconfirmed at this juncture. When you put some of the pieces together, such as minimal improvement in his skating and on-ice reads, plus his stagnant underlying numbers that show zero ability to drive play, it’s hard to completely discount the rumors.
There’s a reason why he isn’t improving, and ice time can only account for so much of the explanation. Simply put, Alexis Lafreneire is missing something that is preventing him from putting it all together. That’s one of the reasons why the Rangers went out and got Peter Laviolette and Dan Muse. They need to get through to Alexis Lafreniere.
This is his third coach. Three strikes and you’re out.
Ok, wrong sport.
Three posts and you’re out? Three Jacob Trouba slappers to the rafters and you’re out?
Whatever euphemism you choose, this is a make or break season in New York for Alexis Lafreniere. He either makes strides, or he’s gone.
It seems so simple, doesn’t it? But how can the Rangers justify trading the top overall pick whom they never put in a real position to succeed? And how can they trade one of their top even strength goal scorers over the last two seasons? It’s not a fun position for either side. They both benefit from making this work. They need it.
Grade: C
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