Toggle sidebar

Player Discussion Alexis Lafrenière

Status
Not open for further replies.
77AA1B7C-9997-4258-9F37-F9FC140E59EE.jpeg
 
  • Haha
Reactions: TopShelfSnipes and Harbour Dog
I dont know but I feel like I'm the only one that believes he's becoming an elite playmaker or showing signs of one.

He still struggles occassionaly on rushes but he has improved. He's not reading the defender properly and sometimes gets snuffed out but this happens to Kane and Panarin all the time. For some reason we hold the kids to a higher standard which makes little sense.

His little touch pass have been amazing all season long. He creates a lot of A+ scoring chances. If he had some consistent finishers he's approaching 50pts imo

Still has major room for improvement. His skating and his shot in particularly
 
  • Like
Reactions: JCMac23, KevinFinnerty, UnSandvich and 3 others
duhmetreE said:
I dont know but I feel like I'm the only one that believes he's becoming an elite playmaker or showing signs of one.

He still struggles occassionaly on rushes but he has improved. He's not reading the defender properly and sometimes gets snuffed out but this happens to Kane and Panarin all the time. For some reason we hold the kids to a higher standard which makes little sense.

His little touch pass have been amazing all season long. He creates a lot of A+ scoring chances. If he had some consistent finishers he's approaching 50pts imo

Still has major room for improvement. His skating and his shot in particularly
Click to expand...
Contrary to some takes, IMO, he clearly still has elite potential. I think next season he takes a nice step and he’ll be a top level player in his D+5. At 23.
 
I still have hope for Kakko and Lafreniere, it's just that the disappointment stems from the fact that these guys were supposed to be Huberdeau at worst, MacKinnon at best type of prospects. By 20-21 these two were like at 0.65 ppg - 0.75 ppg type guys.

Ours have been in the 0.3s and just now are approaching 0.5.

Maybe it's because of the team's depth but I think if Kakko and Lafreniere were both averaging Chytil numbers (0.64 ppg at age 23) in this their 22 and 21 years, respectively, we'd all feel a lot better saying that they will both be elite high end players by 25 or 26.
 
duhmetreE said:
I dont know but I feel like I'm the only one that believes he's becoming an elite playmaker or showing signs of one.

He still struggles occassionaly on rushes but he has improved. He's not reading the defender properly and sometimes gets snuffed out but this happens to Kane and Panarin all the time. For some reason we hold the kids to a higher standard which makes little sense.

His little touch pass have been amazing all season long. He creates a lot of A+ scoring chances. If he had some consistent finishers he's approaching 50pts imo

Still has major room for improvement. His skating and his shot in particularly
Click to expand...
Unfortunately people see what they wanna see and a lot wanna see something negative, he's been playing good 2 way hockey since a while. Imo his only knock on him early was his skating and even that's improved. He's getting better and as i said, he needs his man strength to play his game , it will come in time and he'll be a decade long ranger.

mas0764 said:
I still have hope for Kakko and Lafreniere, it's just that the disappointment stems from the fact that these guys were supposed to be Huberdeau at worst, MacKinnon at best type of prospects. By 20-21 these two were like at 0.65 ppg - 0.75 ppg type guys.

Ours have been in the 0.3s and just now are approaching 0.5.

Maybe it's because of the team's depth but I think if Kakko and Lafreniere were both averaging Chytil numbers (0.64 ppg at age 23) in this their 22 and 21 years, respectively, we'd all feel a lot better saying that they will both be elite high end players by 25 or 26.
Click to expand...
Our depth has put them in spots where they have to play defense first and not take spots on the powerplay with the best players. You put Laf on pp1 all year and he's easily got 20 more points and is likely more confident as well. It's not fair to compare players in different situations for that reason.
 
  • Like
Reactions: egelband and JCMac23
Kanerbomb said:
Unfortunately people see what they wanna see and a lot wanna see something negative, he's been playing good 2 way hockey since a while. Imo his only knock on him early was his skating and even that's improved. He's getting better and as i said, he needs his man strength to play his game , it will come in time and he'll be a decade long ranger.


Our depth has put them in spots where they have to play defense first and not take spots on the powerplay with the best players. You put Laf on pp1 all year and he's easily got 20 more points and is likely more confident as well. It's not fair to compare players in different situations for that reason.
Click to expand...
the bolded is the most important aspect of all this....people want to deny it because of the small sample size but just by playing on PP1 all season hed had 20 more points
 
  • Like
Reactions: JCMac23 and bhamill
Next step is going to be figuring out how to get more shots on net. In over 200 games he's shooting at > 15%. If he can bump up his output from an average of around 2 shots to 3 shots per game he's at 25 goals easily.

I think his upside is around 30 goals and 40 assists. Will probably take another 2-3 years to get there
 
mas0764 said:
I still have hope for Kakko and Lafreniere, it's just that the disappointment stems from the fact that these guys were supposed to be Huberdeau at worst, MacKinnon at best type of prospects. By 20-21 these two were like at 0.65 ppg - 0.75 ppg type guys.

Ours have been in the 0.3s and just now are approaching 0.5.

Maybe it's because of the team's depth but I think if Kakko and Lafreniere were both averaging Chytil numbers (0.64 ppg at age 23) in this their 22 and 21 years, respectively, we'd all feel a lot better saying that they will both be elite high end players by 25 or 26.
Click to expand...
Pavel Brendl was supposed to be Mike Bossy. The Rangers made the consensus pick on that day with Laf. If it was the "wrong" pick then almost all the talking heads were wrong as well.

Nathan McKinnon has unreal elite speed but despite that was really only a borderline 20 goal scorer in his first 4 seasons. Hopefully Laf can continue to improve as well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: egelband
It's just tough...you comp[are him and Kakko to players in their draft and a lot of those guys were given tons of PP and EV minutes and let play through all the ups and downs and so forth, while Kakko and Laf had to "earn" their coaches trust and icetime and were not put in positions to be able to do whatever and learn through making (many many) mistakes.

In the long run maybe they still get there, but it's 100% a far different path than most high picks and it definitely looks very weird. If Laf had been given 1st line EV minutes and PP time and told to go out there and do whatever and wasn't trying to ride shotgun to someone like Panarin, what we he look like now? Maybe he would be point per game player, maybe not, maybe he'd be a cherry picker of a player that didn't have any defense in his game
 
  • Like
Reactions: egelband
Uninstaaled said:
The biggest thing holding him back are not his feet, its his ability/willingness to play through contact consistently.

He and Schneider are guys I would force to stay and train locally this summer. Especially him.
Click to expand...
I think it's about getting himself into space. He hasn't learned how to consistently get to open space in the NHL, obviously his skating is a part of the issue, but his game from Juniors is not going to work here. He needs to adapt and find what works. He's gotten better this season though. He's been good whenever he does have space imo

From what I've heard, Schneids is a gym rat. Laffy needs to take it serious this offseason. People often forget, Zibs elevated his game when he 'took it serious' and started working out with Kreider. I'm pretty sure something similar happened to Draisaitl, who I think Laffy is somewhat similar to stylistically. There's the obvious physical benefits but it also helps just as much, if not more, mentally.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: mas0764
I'd guess it has more to do with figuring out the most effective way to train, not just "taking it serious and training harder"

Even Kreider changed up how he trained fairly recently. You can be a gym rat and still not be functioning as well as you should at a pro athelete level because at that level you're looking for highly specific things rather than just "go lift hard and put on weight!"
 
haohmaru said:
Lighting what up? His phone with KHL contract pleas?
Click to expand...
From Vancouver's point of view it was worth a look, but both the trade return and his performance since the trade just confirms what he is.

He won't be in the NHL next year and likely never again. He's just not good enough at this level. It happens.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: EdJovanovski
Priorae said:
From Vancouver's point of view it was worth a look, but both the trade return and his performance since the trade just confirms what he is.

He won't be in the NHL next year and likely never again. He's just not good enough at this level. It happens.
Click to expand...
Disagree he's not gonna be an nhl player but he needs a serious bit of training this offseason. Whether he wants to do that or go to Russia is another story.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Top Bottom