Why Rangers have ‘appetite to explore’ Alexis Lafreniere trade: NHL insider
Is there a more polarizing player on the New York Rangers roster than Alexis Lafreniere? Especially now that the Rangers embrace a roster retool, with each player under more internal scrutiny than ever.
There are those who see in Lafreniere a No. 1 overall pick who doesn’t produce nearly enough offense and simply is not a star player, and very likely never will be, and should be traded sooner rather than later.
There are others who see a play-driving force supported by solid underlying statistics, who should remain a top-six mainstay on Broadway for years to come.
Such is the conundrum for Rangers management, who’ve analyzed Lafreniere more than any of us and likely remain up in the air on what the plan is with him moving forward.
So what will the Rangers do with their 24-tear-old forward ahead of the March 6 NHL Trade Deadline, or even into the upcoming offseason? Is he an absolute keeper, someone fully embedded in the core? Or will the Rangers cut bait and move on from the top pick in the 2020 NHL Draft?
“I think there’s an appetite to explore it [a trade],” The Fourth Period’s Dave Pagnotta told Forever Blueshirts on the Rink Rap podcast. “This isn’t [Artemi] Panarin, making him available, shopping him, but there is a willingness to have those conversations.”
Pagnotta also said, “His name has been out there and there have been exploratory conversations with other teams going back to last summer. There was a little bit of a connection there with Vancouver, when that whole Quinn Hughes discussion was happening League-wide (before the star defenseman was traded to the Minnesota Wild on Dec. 12).”
Pagnotta’s take makes sense. It doesn’t appear that the Rangers are actively shopping Lafreniere, who has modest stats (222 points; 102 goals, 120 assists) in 433 career NHL games. But it sure makes sense to listen if teams are making offers for him.
It was just last week that Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman contended the Rangers may prefer to “fix” Lafreniere than trade him.
“The Rangers can say … we’d rather try and fix him and try to make it work here than sell him for 50 cents on the dollar.,” Friedman stated on the 32 Thoughts podcast.
Rangers must ponder if ‘change of scenery make sense’ for Alexis Lafreniere
Lafreniere’s in the first season of a seven-year, $52.15 million contract. That $7.45 million annual salary-cap hit appears hefty for a player sitting on 10 goals and 29 points in 53 games and had a significant drop off in production the past two seasons.
The flip side — remember, we said he’s a polarizing player — is that if Lafreniere reaches his full potential and is consistently the player who scored 28 goals and totaled 57 points in 2023-24, then that cap hit becomes a bargain, especially with the NHL salary cap increasing significantly in coming years.
“With Lafreniere, he’s got his contract, he’s not produced at the level they anticipated he would this season,” Pagnotta explained. “They thought the incline would be happening well in advance of now. Does a change of scenery make sense and what are you getting back?”
Even the argument that Lafreniere is only 24 years old and still approaching his prime is polarizing because he’s already in his sixth NHL season and most often skates on a line with Panarin, one of the best and most productive players in the NHL. Yet, the results, his numbers, are disappointing.
You can see the talent. And the career-best xGF of 54.44 percent is tops among Rangers forwards this season, per Natural Stat Trick. If you’re the Rangers it must be maddening that he doesn’t actually score more.
Will he thrive and produce with a different core around him? Or is this just who he is?
Chris Drury and Co. must feel like damned if you do, damned if you don’t when it comes to potentially trading Lafreniere.
“This isn’t a scenario where you’re moving Lafreniere and bringing back a package,” Pagnotta explained. “This has to be a scenario, a player of his caliber — or at least optically his caliber — that has to be matched with what’s coming back. So, if optically you’re moving out a star player, you’ve got to bring in a star player. And that’s what presents some challenges because obviously his value isn’t the highest, even though a lot of people around the League still believe he’s got a lot of potential left in him and it’s still very, very early in his career.
“So, there’s a runway here for this player. But at the same time, the value is not at its peak or anywhere near that, so it’s a tough path to navigate right now in terms of a deal that makes you better.”
