Player Discussion Alexis Lafrenière

[leetch99]

The kid is struggling.

It’s 100% mental right now. From the outside, you do what you can to snap him out of it.

He’s overthinking and over analyzing possibly. That never works in competitive sports

We need playoff Laffy

He has got to get more physical and involved...just madder and meaner . Find some small Euro and beat the crap out of em......LOL.....just don't get a lickin though....

 

[Zats Muccarello]

The weird part of this whole saga is that he was producing at a fair rate before the scratch and had a handful of bad games. The last three have looked far worse than his general play before the scratch.

 

[will1066]

Because you can improve the roster for the same amount of dollars that hed make?

Lafreniere contributes nothing that a contender needs. Him being on the roster come playoff time is automatically a deficit that is fought off by his linemates

He can easily be replaced by a hungrier AHLer/prospect, whether through the farm or trade or FA.

And third liner? Please, Lafreniere is barely a fourth liner at the going rate. His production is double what he deserves from his level of play. Most of his points are freebies or secondary assists


So sunken cost fallacy. This is how we want the team run?

You're eager to label him a bust and jettison him. Don't know why you're so eager. But, yeah, there's an investment in him because he's a 1OA. Like it or not. And the organization is not going to give up on him yet.

 

[Rybo]

Why would we move him? Either he busts out, and does nothing and we have a middle 6 player who can score but not much else, or he does grow and we’ve got a top line player.
His current play he’s not gonna get a massive deal, and he’s not gonna get a massive offer sheet.

I just realized you said 'or he does grow and weve got a top line player'

Buddy, I hate to break it to you, but that ship has sailed already...

 

[leetch99]

Kakko, Chytil, Miller, Schneider, even Kravtsov are all trending upward. Four out of the 5 are thriving. The only one stagnating is Laff. The team is also 11-1-2 since the Ottawa and Chicago fiascos but you're right, Gallant sucks and the team can't develop young players. Clowns, all of you.

Don't forget to add in Gauthier still a kid and all he does is get a breakaway every game and or draw a PP for our team.....on about 8 minutes of ice time a game . How many penalties does Laf draw and how many breakaways does he get ? Footspeed is so important and or lack of it . Gotta get more leg drive this Summer.....

 

[Rybo]

You're eager to label him a bust and jettison him. Don't know why you're so eager. But, yeah, there's an investment in him because he's a 1OA. Like it or not. And the organization is not going to give up on him yet.

An investment during the prime of their Cup window with Panarin and Zibanejad in their primes

Yes, the perfect moment to continue spending time and dollars on a 1st overall who has a single play in his NHL career that showed high skill level

Yes, the Rangers during their best Cup window since 2014 is going to continue worrying about Lafreniere... lemme know when that leads to success in the postseason.

(Guess we will ignore the player named Pavel Buchnevich who was moved cause of the kids, and now both combined dont outproduce Buchnevich)

 

[Pawnee Rangers]

Don't forget to add in Gauthier still a kid and all he does is get a breakaway every game and or draw a PP for our team.....on about 8 minutes of ice time a game . How many penalties does Laf draw and how many breakaways does he get ? Footspeed is so important and or lack of it .

I would have but I've been told that 25 years old is dinosaur territory by folks here. But age aside, he's a great example of doing more with less. Less ice time, less talent, less pedigree, less commitment from the organization.

 

[will1066]

An investment during the prime of their Cup window with Panarin and Zibanejad in their primes

Yes, the perfect moment to continue spending time and dollars on a 1st overall who has a single play in his NHL career that showed high skill level

Yes, the Rangers during their best Cup window since 2014 is going to continue worrying about Lafreniere... lemme know when that leads to success in the postseason.

(Guess we will ignore the player named Pavel Buchnevich who was moved cause of the kids, and now both combined dont outproduce Buchnevich)

Ok, so it's becoming clear that your beef with Lafreniere is from Buchnevich leaving. Buch leaving has been discussed ad nauseam. And it has nothing to do with Lafreniere, who's making the league minimum.

 

[CLW]

It's a tough situation. He's a consensus #1 and was touted to be NHL-ready and have immediate impact. Can't put him in Hartford, that would've been a publicity nightmare. Now that he's underwhelmed, the organization can't lose face by sending him down. Because we're a proud organization in a high-profile market in the biggest city in the world blah blah. So the only option is to shelter him, tough love him, hope he does things on-the-job.

The biggest problem is him being jerked around and never having a settled role that fits his obvious talent. Playing a kid like him as a third line grinder is doing nobody any favors. He needs to play an uptempo puck moving game with talented line mates. Now, at this point, the Rangers start bleating about not a development league which frankly reeks a bit.

The Rangers can't develop him because it's not a development league, they can't send him to Hartford because they don't want to lose face and they can't trade him because, again, they would look stupid if he breaks out elsewhere and it would look like a blot on the record to have to trade their young 1OA... All of that is on the Rangers.

Kakko has survived the Rangers insanity by having a rock solid foundation back in Turku to build from. Chytil too seemingly. I think Vally talks a lot, but his point about Laffy's offseason is one thing I agree with him about, does Laffy have proper support in his offseason environment?

In any case the Rangers need to put their thinking caps on and come up with some smart solutions quickly because the alarm bells are ringing loud and clear, and I don't like the defensive noises coming out of Rangerland.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

This was discussed in another podcast (can't remember which) recently as well. Honestly, the Rangers are guilty of it but the NHL (especially the last couple of years) almost requires teams to have 5-7 players near the league minimum to have any hopes of fielding a team with multiple "star" players.

And, of course, there would be those who'd bitch and moan that the Rangers are a BS organization because their 1OA is playing for the Wolfpack.



The absolute last thing the Rangers should do is trade Lafreniere at the lowest point of his career.

He can always get lower

 

[mike14]

The biggest problem is him being jerked around and never having a settled role that fits his obvious talent. Playing a kid like him as a third line grinder is doing nobody any favors. He needs to play an uptempo puck moving game with talented line mates. Now, at this point, the Rangers start bleating about not a development league which frankly reeks a bit.

Who do you have in mind?
In his first 20 games this season he played 13 with Trochek and Panarin (2g 4a, 9 scoreless games), then after one game with Tro and Vesey (no points) he went with Chytil and Kakko for 6 (4a, 4 scoreless).

14 scoreless games over the span, 2g 7a.
How different his stat line looks if he playes with one (or both) of Zib, CK I"m not sure, but outside of Vesey for a game, he got reps with our more 'uptempo' players and didn't do anything remarkable, nor did he look like he was really creating the tempo

 

[Jim Ramsay]

I think his skating and awareness on the ice will prevent him from ever becoming a star player in this league. Thats not to say he can't be a good player. I just see a player that doesnt excel at anything at the NHL level.

I hope to be proven wrong, but I just dont see it...

 

[Mandar]

In a random game in January against a terrible Montreal team in Montreal in front of his family... Gallant needed to beat up on Montreal? Instead of give the kid a boost whose been stripped of all his confidence by this coach. Couldn't give him one inconsequential game to be the guy... worst Rangers coach I've ever seen in my life. Complete douche.

Do you think that Laf should be on PP1?

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

I wouldnt say worst coach.

Trottier, vigneault and quinn are all pretty easily worse.

But having gallant as coach actually makes me miss Renney. And i dont know why.

Vigneault??? He's the best coach we've had in a decade sadly enough.

Quinn was even better than Gallant. Gallant is the worst since Trottier AINEC

 

[Off Sides]

It's a tough situation. He's a consensus #1 and was touted to be NHL-ready and have immediate impact. Can't put him in Hartford, that would've been a publicity nightmare. Now that he's underwhelmed, the organization can't lose face by sending him down. Because we're a proud organization in a high-profile market in the biggest city in the world blah blah. So the only option is to shelter him, tough love him, hope he does things on-the-job.

They could have left Laff where he was like they did with Othmann. The (2017 and beyond) rebuild, and I have to give @RangerBoy credit for the nomenclature, was a basically a hood-ornament that supported the rebuild letter. None of Lias, Chytil, Kravtsov, Kakko, Laff were ready for the NHL.

Sure there was a slight danger if they left them unsigned they might have not signed later on, or stagnated where they were, yet it turns out they basically stagnated in the NHL because the NHL is not a developmental league according to them.

They should not be able to have it both ways, the prospects were either ready for the NHL or they were not. If they were unwilling to develop them there, they should not have been there.

 

[bleedblue94]

To be fair Lafreniere has played really well with Zib too....just doesn't get any time there anymore

He hasn't played really well, he just has looked better then the dog shit he has looked for most of the year. He's looked good compared to himself the rest of the year, that doesn't mean that he's actually been good at all this year

 

[ReddestRum]

He hasn't played really well, he just has looked better then the dog shit he has looked for most of the year. He's looked good compared to himself the rest of the year, that doesn't mean that he's actually been good at all this year

I really want to know what the metric for playing real well is. Because in this thread there have been some shit talking about players like Hughes, Stutz, Zegras, etc. Pretty sure I've heard the word overrated being used in conversations concerning those players in this thread. However, there seems to be a constant he's playing well for the diehard Laf fans.

IMO, he looked no better or worse playing with any of the the vets, and the only one of the kids that seems to have any effect on joining or leaving a line right now is Kakko. Chytil is really the only player right now saving that 3rd line. Krav is absolutely noticeable on the puck and has seen more scratches than Laf ever has.

 

[chosen]

The prevailing wisdom was that Chytil wouldn't develop. He is.

Ditto for Kakko.

I'm guessing Laf will improve, too.

Hell, they gave us a glimpse of the possibilities in the playoffs last season. Far from giving up on these three.

 

[LoveGoons]

This a joke it been a 1.5 year of this covid BS and it take three year for these soft punk to figure it out.. can believe he got his ass handed to him by stamkos..

 

[ReddestRum]

 

[huerter]

The weird part of this whole saga is that he was producing at a fair rate before the scratch and had a handful of bad games. The last three have looked far worse than his general play before the scratch.

Production Schmoshmuction

 

[GENESISPuck94]

The weird part of this whole saga is that he was producing at a fair rate before the scratch and had a handful of bad games. The last three have looked far worse than his general play before the scratch.

His EV production was on par with or higher than all the forwards on PP1 except for Panarin. At that point before the scratch he had more EV points than Trocheck, same EV points as Kreider, only 3 less EV points than Zibanejad. After the scratch what ever little bit of confidence that was left tanked even further and his production disappeared.

What's happening to him is mostly on Gallant. Sure the kid could get "amped up" or whatever but it's psychology, how can someone get psyched up for something they won't be a part of.

 

[Jim Ramsay]

He's got the same amount of goals as Gauthier(played 10 less games) and Schneider

 

[haohmaru]

He's got the same amount of goals as Gauthier(played 10 less games) and Schneider

He's got as many goals as Sammy Blais since 12/7

 

[leetch99]

He is too slow.....he needs to be faster . It really is that simple . I say trade him for Chychrun as he is still somewhat of a wildcard ....and maybe he turns out ? Somehow I have my doubts it will happen in NY behind Panarin and Kreider . Laf-conditional first this year or next depending on a Final appearance and maybe Jones .......and it could be a steal for Yotes.....and we could win 2 cups.....roll the dice I figure . Maybe next week I change my mind ! LOL....