The jury is officially in: Alexis Lafreniere is a complete bust

[Chaels Arms]

Why?

Location: QC

 

[Zach716]

This is just a lesson for NYR. Leave development to the farm teams like Buffalo. Let us draft the young stars and develop them. Then after a couple years of continued failure you can just trade us for them.

Lol I constantly see you giving weirdo bashing of the Sabres (plenty of subject matter there don’t get me wrong) that doesn’t make sense. But your comments never even make sense to the analogies given. It’s a bit bizarre

 

[BB88]

Man, the Rangers were looking SET. I was a big fan of the way they were rebuilding/retooling but it really hasn't gone well. Luckily the team success part of it has gone well due to having a really good veteran core. But the future they were building through the 2017-2020 drafts? An absolute flop really. It's almost impressive in a way.

They really didn’t committ to it.

They went too fast

 

[kp61c]

But what about Kakko?

 

[Golden_Jet]

Don't get the hate, great player. Expecting 60+ pts this year.

It’s more disappointment.

 

[Skinnyjimmy08]

I enjoy watching NYR games when I can and I honestly forget he's even playing. I truly don't notice the guy ever

 

[thaman8765678]

Laf for Huberdeau or Kadri and a pick.

Who says no?

 

[VivaLasVegas]

Talent scouts and draft gurus miss again, what else is new?

 

[SettlementRichie10]

Both Lafreniere and Quinton Byfield have been stunted by shoddy management trying to both win now and rebuild.

 

[Profet]

Both Lafreniere and Quinton Byfield have been stunted by shoddy management trying to both win now and rebuild.

Or the scouts were just wrong.

I can't speak to Byfield.

Lafreniere has no game breaking talent. It's simply not there.

His skills don't translate to the NHL. He can't skate. He doesn't play defense. He only hits after the puck is already gone. And while legal, there isn't a ton of benefit as his hits aren't of the particularly hard variety.

I don't get it. He's Jimmy Vesey with a draft pedigree.

But Vesey can play defense.

 

[LOFIN]

But what about Kakko?

Disappointing relative to his draft position and hype, but still a very useful player. And he shows signs that he can still become a better player.

 

[Profet]

But what about Kakko?

Kakko's production has been disappointing. But you can see the talent. You can see the skill. You can see that IF he can figure out how to put the pieces together he could be a special player.

No idea if he'll figure it out, but I would be uncomfortable trading him at this point because you can clearly see the talent.

Lafreniere on the other hand... I'd trade him to the highest bidder today and wish that team luck.

 

[LOFIN]

Kakko's production has been disappointing. But you can see the talent. You can see the skill. You can see that IF he can figure out how to put the pieces together he could be a special player.

No idea if he'll figure it out, but I would be uncomfortable trading him at this point because you can clearly see the talent.

Lafreniere on the other hand... I'd trade him to the highest bidder today and wish that team luck.

Kakko at this point of his career is a perfectly serviceable, defensively good second line winger. Which is to say it's a huge disappointment considering he was looking like probably the best Finnish prospect since Barkov before the draft, but also not someone you are going to just give away for peanuts. He's a useful piece of a roster as it stands.

 

[Profet]

Kakko at this point of his career is a perfectly serviceable, defensively good second line winger. Which is to say it's a huge disappointment considering he was looking like probably the best Finnish prospect since Barkov before the draft, but also not someone you are going to just give away for peanuts. He's a useful piece of a roster as it stands.

I notice you didn't mention Lafreniere when talking about serviceability.

 

[LokiDog]

Honestly haven't followed too closely tbh but everytime I've watched, he's been limited to low teen TOI with limited PP time. Would be hard to contribute on the scoresheet.

Laf is about a full year older. He has played a lot more NHL games at this stage, and his most common linemates are either Kakko and Chytil, or Zibanejad, Kreider, Panarin, etc. He never plays with scrubs. Last year he averaged more 5v5 TOI than Kreider.

He was also touted as an extremely NHL ready prospect 4 years ago whereas Byfield was billed as long term upside that was very raw. That buys you a different time line.

But really, it comes down to the simple eye test. Lafreniere never, ever looks like he’s about to break out. He can’t string together two back to back games of looking like he has ANY type of top six pedigree. He rarely has a single game, or even moment within a game, where he shows that kind of promise. Byfield, at least does show flashes of “wow, this could be a player”.

Essentially, their similarities end immediately after we discuss their draft positions. One is an athletically gifted, physical specimen who was viewed as a long term project with high upside who is slowly starting to flash some of the upside and athletic gifts in an encouraging way. One is a below average physical specimen (for professional sports at least) who has not progressed in any meaningful way since day 1 despite being given a lot more opportunity at this level. Laf has been stagnant since his debut. There’s no tangible nor perceived progress. He doesn’t have any skill or physical trait that stands out as above average at this level, so there isn’t really any single thing to grab onto and hope he can focus on growing that part of his game. He’s Jimmy Vesey 2.0.

 

[LokiDog]

First 3 seasons.

Lafreniere: 216 GP, 91p, 0.421p/g
D. Sedin : 233 GP, 97p, 0.416p/g
H. Sedin: 242 GP, 104p, 0.430p/g

We can safely say he's on pace to be better than Daniel but worse than Henrik Sedin.

Same facial hair for all three.

 

[SettlementRichie10]

Or the scouts were just wrong.

I can't speak to Byfield.

Lafreniere has no game breaking talent. It's simply not there.

His skills don't translate to the NHL. He can't skate. He doesn't play defense. He only hits after the puck is already gone. And while legal, there isn't a ton of benefit as his hits aren't of the particularly hard variety.

I don't get it. He's Jimmy Vesey with a draft pedigree.

But Vesey can play defense.

The likelihood of all the major scouting services being this wrong on a #1 and #2 in the same draft year is extraordinarily unlikely.

Both Lafreniere and Byfield were clearly mishandled by two teams trying to have their cake and eat it, too. Both the Rangers and Kings went through a truncated rebuild-not-rebuild and quickly pivoted to bringing in prime players to compete now. They left their bluechip youth stranded in depth roles that didn’t suit their draft pedigree and didn’t foster quality development at the NHL level.

Contrast that with teams like the Devils or Senators who just accepted they would suck for X amount of years, but in the meantime placed their bluechip youth in positions to take ownership of the team.

Obviously it’s more complex and nuanced than that in totality, and yes, perhaps neither Laf nor Byfield were quite as good as the scouting reports claimed. But both of these prospects were clearly mismanaged by bad GMs who were much more interested in making the playoffs than fostering bluechip development at the NHL level.

 

[Profet]

The likelihood of all the major scouting services being this wrong on a #1 and #2 in the same draft year is extraordinarily unlikely.

Both Lafreniere and Byfield were clearly mishandled by two teams trying to have their cake and eat it, too. Both the Rangers and Kings went through a truncated rebuild-not-rebuild and quickly pivoted to bringing in prime players to compete now. They left their bluechip youth stranded in depth roles that didn’t suit their draft pedigree and didn’t foster quality development at the NHL level.

Contrast that with teams like the Devils or Senators who just accepted they would suck for X amount of years, but in the meantime placed their bluechip youth in positions to take ownership of the team.

Obviously it’s more complex and nuanced than that in totality, and yes, perhaps neither Laf nor Byfield were quite as good as the scouting reports claimed. But both of these prospects were clearly mismanaged by bad GMs who were much more interested in making the playoffs than fostering bluechip development at the NHL level.

Cool story bro..

Want to take a flyer on a former #1 OA pick?

You can have him for a low first rounder.

 

[Bowski]

Happens.

 

[Jeune Poulet]

The likelihood of all the major scouting services being this wrong on a #1 and #2 in the same draft year is extraordinarily unlikely.

Both Lafreniere and Byfield were clearly mishandled

Classic.

It's either the fault of the scouts, the coaches or the GMs.

Never the player.

You should frequent HF's Habs board. They still think Galchenyuk was the chosen one over there, deprived of his great destiny by Marc Bergevin and MIchel Therrien.

 

[Tommy Shelby]

Trade him to Colorado for peanuts

 

[Lukin1978]

Change of scenery required

 

[Mattilaus]

Lol I constantly see you giving weirdo bashing of the Sabres (plenty of subject matter there don’t get me wrong) that doesn’t make sense. But your comments never even make sense to the analogies given. It’s a bit bizarre

speaking of comments that don't make sense....

At least 48 people seem to have understood mine enough to laugh at it.

 

[SettlementRichie10]

Classic.

It's either the fault of the scouts, the coaches or the GMs.

Never the player.

You should frequent HF's Habs board. They still think Galchenyuk was the chosen one over there, deprived of his great destiny by Marc Bergevin and MIchel Therrien.

If you actually read my post, you would’ve seen me state it’s likely some combination of bad management AND botched/biased scouting in a chaotic draft year.

Both a #1 and a #2 busting to this degree is historically unusual. Ignoring that both their drafting teams were in similar positions organizationally is foolish. There’s obviously something there.

 

[Crease]

The likelihood of all the major scouting services being this wrong on a #1 and #2 in the same draft year is extraordinarily unlikely.

Both Lafreniere and Byfield were clearly mishandled by two teams trying to have their cake and eat it, too. Both the Rangers and Kings went through a truncated rebuild-not-rebuild and quickly pivoted to bringing in prime players to compete now. They left their bluechip youth stranded in depth roles that didn’t suit their draft pedigree and didn’t foster quality development at the NHL level.

Contrast that with teams like the Devils or Senators who just accepted they would suck for X amount of years, but in the meantime placed their bluechip youth in positions to take ownership of the team.

Obviously it’s more complex and nuanced than that in totality, and yes, perhaps neither Laf nor Byfield were quite as good as the scouting reports claimed. But both of these prospects were clearly mismanaged by bad GMs who were much more interested in making the playoffs than fostering bluechip development at the NHL level.

Rangers to Laf and Kakko: “Welcome to the bigs, kid, now stay out of the way and don’t touch anything.” Four years later, here we are.