Alexis Lafreniere disappointing season start? PART 2

[Washed Up 29YearOld]

I don't like the argument he's too good for juniors and shouldn't be sent down. Juniors is a development league. The NHL is not. Send him down to work on the skills that would make him successful at the NHL level and improve his weaknesses/ modify his game for NHL style. If it gets past the 20 game mark and he still has 2 points its clearly the right thing to do.

 

[Nicomo Cosca]

Remember when Jack Hughes sucked?

That was a clear cut case of him being undersized and not physically strong enough though (look at him now with 14 extra lbs of muscle). Laf is a much bigger kid, and was supposedly way more NHL ready.

 

[Favin]

Kakko's playing very well and I think you'd trade your rebuild for ours, but thanks for your concerns.

Are you saying the Devils would trade their rebuild pieces for the Rangers rebuild pieces? Or other way around?

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Are you saying the Devils would trade their rebuild pieces for the Rangers rebuild pieces? Or other way around?

A Devils fan would take the Rangers rebuild over the Devils rebuild.

 

[Amazinmets73]

That was a clear cut case of him being undersized and not physically strong enough though (look at him now with 14 extra lbs of muscle). Laf is a much bigger kid, and was supposedly way more NHL ready.

Hughes was also younger his rookie season. It's funny, Hughes looked like your typical 18 YO kid whereas Laf is a manchild. He could easily pass for 26.

 

[Favin]

A Devils fan would take the Rangers rebuild over the Devils rebuild.

I doubt a single Devils fan that says that. Or even any non-Rangers fan that says that.

The Rangers have added some nice pieces in Panarin and Fox, and Miller looks great. But no, the overall rebuild is not that well.

 

[BringBackTheRats]

A Devils fan would take the Rangers rebuild over the Devils rebuild.

Hughes is showing flashes of star ability. Nico and Bratt are continuing to show above average abilities with forechecking. Ty Smith has been rock solid in his first real showing. Blackwood is arguably the best young goalie in the league.

Fox and Kakko are looking great. Lafreniere looks like he is in a similar boat that Jack was last year. Shestyorkin has had flashes of great play.

I'd say it's pretty even on the rebuild front. The reason I wouldn't take the Rangers rebuild over the Devils right now is that Ruff is letting the kids play.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I doubt a single Devils fan that says that. Or even any non-Rangers fan that says that.

The Rangers have added some nice pieces in Panarin and Fox, and Miller looks great. But no, the overall rebuild is not that well.

With all due respect, you are a notorious critic of the Rangers rebuild. Most outside sources I've seen have us as possessing one of the best up and coming cores in the league. Meanwhile, most believe the Devils are still a number of pieces away from that.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Hughes is showing flashes of star ability. Nico and Bratt are continuing to show above average abilities with forechecking. Ty Smith has been rock solid in his first real showing. Blackwood is arguably the best young goalie in the league.

Fox and Kakko are looking great. Lafreniere looks like he is in a similar boat that Jack was last year. Shestyorkin has had flashes of great play.

I'd say it's pretty even on the rebuild front. The reason I wouldn't take the Rangers rebuild over the Devils right now is that Ruff is letting the kids play.

I think the Devils have some pieces, but they still need a few big pieces before they are anywhere near believing they are out of the rebuild stage. Ty Smith can't be it on the back-end. The Devils need to acquire another 2-3 high-end young defensemen, and probably also someone better than Smith. He can't be the best defensemen on a real cup contender. I think the forward core for the Devils looks like its trending in the right direction and they have a quality goalie. However, I think even you'd agree that another two years of drafting early and building up that defense is the Devils current stance before they can believe they are a real playoff contender. And then we'll see how good their core is. Hughes, Hischier, Blackwood, Smith are some good pieces. Are they going to be good enough pieces to be a real Cup Contender? Still to be seen.

Meanwhile, I think the Rangers are at the stage where they have the main pieces needed already. It's mostly a matter of them being young, and that you can't expect them to instantly be difference makers. It might take a few years for these players to come around. I'm also not suggesting the Rangers don't have some problems outside of the players, as well. I'm not suggesting either that the Rangers are penciled in to win Cups, but they are ahead of the Devils in their rebuild. I'm not convinced by the coach or the GM of the Rangers, but I think looking at this objectively there are still those same questions on the Devils side of things.

 

[Favin]

With all due respect, you are a notorious critic of the Rangers rebuild. Most outside sources I've seen have us as possessing one of the best up and coming cores in the league. Meanwhile, most believe the Devils are still a number of pieces away from that.

I am not a notorious anything.

You said Devils fans would trade their rebuild for Rangers rebuild...find one.

Both rebuilds need work. Devils have hit on more on their top prospects and have more cap space. Rangers have a few more veterans in the mix. I'd take the former nine times out of ten.

 

[OKR]

I don't like the argument he's too good for juniors and shouldn't be sent down. Juniors is a development league. The NHL is not. Send him down to work on the skills that would make him successful at the NHL level and improve his weaknesses/ modify his game for NHL style. If it gets past the 20 game mark and he still has 2 points its clearly the right thing to do.

It’s not and it has been beaten to death by now, how does he learn the NHL game by playing more in a league where he hasn’t learned to play NHL hockey by now even tho he has dominated that league for couple years? He could spend 20 years in QMJHL and that won’t get him any closer to learning to play NHL hockey.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I am not a notorious anything.

You said Devils fans would trade their rebuild for Rangers rebuild...find one.

Both rebuilds need work. Devils have hit on more on their top prospects and have more cap space. Rangers have a few more veterans in the mix. I'd take the former nine times out of ten.

Here was an athletic feature that had 11 of their panelists contribute to ranking every team in the league based on their future. NHL Future Power Rankings: Projecting the 2023-24 standings

Rangers were 3rd, Devils 8th. You can make a poll, if you want. I think you'd find that the Rangers rebuild is considered ahead of the Devils by neutrals.

 

[Reggiet2]

A Devils fan would take the Rangers rebuild over the Devils rebuild.

Only a dope would take the Rangers rebuild over the Devils, Jack Hugh's is by far more talented then any Ranger prospect by a country mile. Devils are already a better team with their young guns than the Rangers! Hishier is better than Kakko and Hugh's is on a different planet from Lafranier!

 

[Scandale du Jour]

I don't like the argument he's too good for juniors and shouldn't be sent down. Juniors is a development league. The NHL is not. Send him down to work on the skills that would make him successful at the NHL level and improve his weaknesses/ modify his game for NHL style. If it gets past the 20 game mark and he still has 2 points its clearly the right thing to do.

Alexis Lafrenière dominated juniors for 2 years.

Alexis Lafrenière already plays a pro-game (ie, he is not a liability out there and makes good decisions with and without the puck). He does not need to adapt his game to the NHL style, he needs to adapt to the NHL speed.

Alexis Lafrenière did not play hockey for 10 months prior to this season.

Sending him down to juniors serves absolutely no purpose for the player he is and the things he needs to work on. Guys are usually sent to the minors to correct bad habits. Lafrenière does not have bad habits. He just need to master the level. Takes time... WHEN YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED IN SO LONG! If the AHL was an option, you could send him there so he can build some confidence. Considering that the Q is the only option, you let him play out of his funk.

If anything, Lafrenière and his representatives were stupid to choose to skip the start of the Q season and the WJC. That would have helped him start the year much better.

 

[Favin]

Here was an athletic feature that had 11 of their panelists contribute to ranking every team in the league based on their future. NHL Future Power Rankings: Projecting the 2023-24 standings

Rangers were 3rd, Devils 8th. You can make a poll, if you want. I think you'd find that the Rangers rebuild is considered ahead of the Devils by neutrals.

Based off this Atheltic article from last year? They used a ranking by 11 writers, 5 of which are beat writers for Canadian teams, and 3 others are Leaf homers.

I'd make a poll if I could control the sample, but there are 1,000's more Ranger fans on here than Devils fans.

 

[Nicomo Cosca]

A Devils fan would take the Rangers rebuild over the Devils rebuild.

Absolutely not. The Devils best young pieces are centers (Hughes & Hischier), they have an absolute stud in goal (Mackenzie Blackwood) who’s only 24 years old, Ty Smith looks every bit as good as advertised, and they have Alexander Holtz (potential 40 goal upside) and Dawson Mercer on the way.

 

[DontLaughAtThat]

Shesterkin is "meh" with a 2.23 GAA and a .922? I'm also getting really tired of talking about Lafreniere struggling when almost everybody on the team can't score to save their lives. It's a team/system problem, and it needs to be fixed. Lafreniere has had some good moments, but he's also had a four-five game stretch where he was invisible... just like most rookies. It doesn't help when you have no centers to play with either.

 

[Reggiet2]

Devil's have a brighter future, as usual Rangers are over hyped again!

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I'd make a poll if I could control the sample, but there are 1,000's more Ranger fans on here than Devils fans.

The way around that is to put options of Devils fan voting for Devils and Rangers fan voting for Rangers.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

Hughes is showing flashes of star ability. Nico and Bratt are continuing to show above average abilities with forechecking. Ty Smith has been rock solid in his first real showing. Blackwood is arguably the best young goalie in the league.

Fox and Kakko are looking great. Lafreniere looks like he is in a similar boat that Jack was last year. Shestyorkin has had flashes of great play.

I'd say it's pretty even on the rebuild front. The reason I wouldn't take the Rangers rebuild over the Devils right now is that Ruff is letting the kids play.

I agree with this. Devils have a franchise center in Hughes, a position of relative weakness for the Rangers going forward. Rangers have a franchise defenseman in Fox that the Devils simply do not have.

Both teams have solid young goalies.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I created a poll.

 

[BigHitter67]

Lafreniere strikes me as a very competitive player. Daigle didn't even like hockey...

yup .. zero similarities here ( aside from the obvious 1OAs and from QC ). No idea what OP is talking about ..lol

 

[Nicomo Cosca]

I agree with this. Devils have a franchise center in Hughes, a position of relative weakness for the Rangers going forward. Rangers have a franchise defenseman in Fox that the Devils simply do not have.

Both teams have solid young goalies.

Thankfully for the Devils this is going to be a great draft for defense. They can likely add a high end prospect to their blue line with their 1st round pick. It might not be an Owen Power or Luke Hughes, but there’s A LOT of talent at d this year.

 

[Blackjack]

I agree with this. Devils have a franchise center in Hughes, a position of relative weakness for the Rangers going forward. Rangers have a franchise defenseman in Fox that the Devils simply do not have.

Both teams have solid young goalies.

I think Smith & Severson are very impressive at the top for the Devils (Severson is only 3.5 years older than Fox), but the bigger difference is the next tier where the Rangers have guys like Lindgren and Lundqvist, and the Devils will need to find more help on defense unless guys like Walsh and Okhotyuk exceed expectations. I like those guys, but they still need work.

 

[HBK27]

A Devils fan would take the Rangers rebuild over the Devils rebuild.

No.

I think the Devils have some pieces, but they still need a few big pieces before they are anywhere near believing they are out of the rebuild stage. Ty Smith can't be it on the back-end. The Devils need to acquire another 2-3 high-end young defensemen, and probably also someone better than Smith. He can't be the best defensemen on a real cup contender. I think the forward core for the Devils looks like its trending in the right direction and they have a quality goalie. However, I think even you'd agree that another two years of drafting early and building up that defense is the Devils current stance before they can believe they are a real playoff contender. And then we'll see how good their core is. Hughes, Hischier, Blackwood, Smith are some good pieces. Are they going to be good enough pieces to be a real Cup Contender? Still to be seen.

Meanwhile, I think the Rangers are at the stage where they have the main pieces needed already. It's mostly a matter of them being young, and that you can't expect them to instantly be difference makers. It might take a few years for these players to come around. I'm also not suggesting the Rangers don't have some problems outside of the players, as well. I'm not suggesting either that the Rangers are penciled in to win Cups, but they are ahead of the Devils in their rebuild. I'm not convinced by the coach or the GM of the Rangers, but I think looking at this objectively there are still those same questions on the Devils side of things.

How many centers are included in these "main pieces"?

Here was an athletic feature that had 11 of their panelists contribute to ranking every team in the league based on their future. NHL Future Power Rankings: Projecting the 2023-24 standings

Rangers were 3rd, Devils 8th. You can make a poll, if you want. I think you'd find that the Rangers rebuild is considered ahead of the Devils by neutrals.

The rankings are also based on on "Ownership & Market", "Management & Coaching" and "Salary Cap" with the Devils getting dinged for their market as well as management & coaching (both of which were new).

Rangers had a higher rating for Young Core (U25) and Prospects, though at the time of this article Tony DeAngelo was a significant part of that U25 core for the Rangers considering the season he just had. The hype train was also through the roof for Lafreniere, while Hughes was coming off a disappointing rookie season and many of the younger players struggled under the Hynes dumpster fire of a season. The amount of improvement in Huhges, continued strong play of Blackwood, emergence of Ty Smith and the amount of 1st/2nd year players integrated into the Devils lineup this season that are playing well (including McLeod, Bastian, Sharangovich, Kuokannen, etc.) certainly have NJ trending in a positive direction. It's close between the two franchises, but the lack of centers for the Rangers is a huge hole.