With Chris Drury doing his best to shake up the New York Rangers roster this offseason, it appears that Alexis Lafreniere is one player the general manager wants to keep on Broadway. Lafreniere's name has been absent from most credible trade rumors, and the Rangers seem to be counting on the 23-year-old forward to bounce back next season after a downturn in production during the 2024-25 campaign.
NHL insider Pierre McGuire believes that's the correct course of action for the Rangers . Though many in the League are split on Lafreniere's future impact, McGuire compared him to Hall of Famer Jarome Iginla .
"I know people are going to say, 'C'mon, no way McGuire, you're out of your mind,' but go watch the development of Jarome Iginla when he was in Calgary out of Kamloops. There was a lot of this (arrow pointing up), there was some of this (downward) and a lot of plateau … it's hard for young players to dominate," McGuire told Forever Blueshirts on the RINK RAP podcast.
"Lafreniere reminded me so much of Jarome Iginla at the same age. Now Jarome took off and became a Hall of Fame player, Lafreniere is not there yet, there's a long way for him to go."
The Rangers forward has had his fair share of fits and starts since he was selected first overall in the 2020 NHL Draft. Lafreniere scored 12 goals in 56 games as a rookie during the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season, then had 19 the following campaign. Two years later, Lafreniere established NHL career highs with 28 goals and 57 points; and he topped off his breakout season by tying for the Rangers lead with eight goals in 16 Stanley Cup Playoff games that spring.
But rarely is a player's development a straight line up, as McGuire referenced with Iginla. So, too, it was for Lafreniere, whose production dropped to 17 goals and 45 points this past season, despite some decent underlying metrics.
So, about that comparison to Iginla, who was selected No. 11 overall by the Dallas Stars in the 1995 draft and traded to the Calgary Flames before his rookie season in 1996-97. Keep in mind that there was more scoring in the NHL 30 years ago, the game was played and officiated differently. Iginla had 21 goals and 50 points as a rookie, but dipped significantly the next season (13 goals, 32 points), to McGuire's point.
Over his first five NHL seasons, Iginla scored 20+ goals four times, including 31 in 2000-01. Lafreniere has done so once, just missing with 19 goals in 2021-22. Interestingly, in their age-22 seasons — for each, his fourth year in the League — Iginla and Lafreniere had very similar stats. Iginla had 29 goals and 63 points in 1999-2000 and Lafreniere had those 28 goals and 57 points mentioned earlier in 2023-24.
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This isn't an apples to apples comparison, but it is a very interesting one. Iginla, of course, went on to score 625 goals, now tied for 16th most in NHL history with Sidney Crosby and Joe Sakic. His 1,300 points are 38th all-time . He had 12 30+ goal seasons, including 50 or more twice.
That's to say Lafreniere has a long way to go to earn a fair comparison one day with Iginla.
But McGuire's point stands. There are ups and downs for almost every young highly-touted player, not named Connor McDavid , Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin . If you believe in the player, then ride out the roller coaster and hopefully get rewarded.
Clearly, Drury and the Rangers believe in Lafreniere, who spent most of the past two seasons in the top six playing alongside superstar Artemi Panarin and veteran Vincent Trocheck . They made a long-term commitment to Lafreniere last October, with a seven-year, $52.15 million contract extension which kicks in next season.
So, it shouldn't be surprising that the Rangers hold on to Lafreniere, even as they shuffle pieces around him.
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Though not quite as big nor physical as Iginla (6-foot-1, 210 pounds), Lafreniere (6-2, 196) draws some similarities in his play, which McGuire also pointed out.
"I think he (Lafreniere) has to be one of those players who dominates board play and dominates slot play. Because with his size and strength … that's what he needs to do," McGuire stated. "What Jarome did really well, dominated the boards, dominated with his shot and he dominated in the slot, he was really unbelievably strong physically,
"I think Alexis can be that guy, but he's got to prove it every day. Those guys have to do it every single day and if they don't, then it becomes a problem."
Consistency is certainly an important area for Lafreniere to improve on. With the team transitioning, especially since Panarin is on the final year of his contract, the Rangers absolutely need more consistent production from Lafreniere. It doesn't need to be Iginla-like production — though, that wouldn't suck — but solid, consistent production at or near the top of New York's scoring leaders year after year moving forward.
McGuire views this as a critical offseason for Lafreniere and the Rangers, after that trainwreck of a season in 2024-25, when they missed the playoffs for the first time in four years.
"The biggest thing with the Rangers is that there's got to be some internal evaluations on hard questions," McGuire noted. "Why didn't a lot of our guys get better, especially our younger guys? What happened to Alexis Lafreniere last season? That's got to be asked. … A lot of those young guys didn't take that next big step last year and they need to."
Should Lafreniere be the answer to a lot of their questions, the Rangers should be in a good place next season.
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