Lafreniere's powerplay points per 60 have been consistently poor throughout his career. If he gets "miniscule" time, say 20 seconds out of every 2 minutes powerplay, that would mean he only needs a point 1/5 of the time that the guy on the first unit gets a point to have a similar PPP/60. The fact is that he doesn't do that though. This season for instance, he's played 54:29 on the powerplay and has only 2 powerplay points to show for it. That's 11th on the Rangers in PPP/60 from a guy who is 6th on the Rangers in total powerplay time, and everyone below him has less than 12 total powerplay minutes on the season.
He was drafted #1 overall and is getting paid like one, he should be driving his own line or an impact player at the very least.
They sign all star caliber players when they don’t fit the team.
The original debate was that he "is what he is" and has no room for growth. Every season, his production has gone up (21, 31, 39, 57 points). He is a 5v5 beast. He saw his production really get a bump when he finally got consistent line mates in Trocheck and Panarin under Laviolette. I'm not saying it's a black and white "it's all the coaches fault" situation. That'd be asinine. I'm just saying being deployed in better positions is a coaches decision and can positively impact his performance. Improved performance means he's got room to grow. This current slump shows he could improve his motor and fight in the face of adversity. We've seen him drive plenty of plays. He can find some consistency. He was almost a PPG player up to the team's slump.
When Rangers dump Kreider isn't it possible that Laf gets that slot on the PP (and his productivity goes up)?
Would he even play Kreider's role on the powerplay? I think part of issue is he's really been a forward on the other point guy throughout junior at his best, but that's kind of a marquee role and if he's not good enough for that spot he'll have to figure out how to be good on the powerplay aside.
The Rangers are an O6 team and as such, have the utmost respect of all hockey fans.
Absolutely agree. Laf is a product of breadman. Kid has been blessed to play with one of most productive players in the NHL. Laf certainly has the skills to keep up and play with panarin but questioning his consistency
Power plays at this level now face aggressive penalty kills which require quick passing and knowing where your options are. Laf hasn't practiced with PP1 and only gets thrown out there once in a while when Lav decides to take Mika's cookies away.
