Sometimes things just take a while to work out. For Alexis Lafreniere, after three seasons with two coaches and never eclipsing 40 points, questions about his future with the Rangers were starting to creep into the conversation. Despite having solid 5v5 numbers, it seemed Lafreniere could never put it all together. Until, of course, Peter Laviolette finally put Lafreniere in the top-six permanently, and he answered with a career season.
The #1 overall pick in the 2020 draft didn’t even need to adjust to the new coach. With Artemi Panarin and Filip Chytil on his line, Lafreniere scored 4 goals in his first 9 games before Chytil’s injury took him down for the season. Laf then went on a heater, putting up 3-4-7 in his first 4 games with Vincent Trocheck as his center, and the rest, as they say, is history. Lafreniere finished the season with a line of 28-29-57, all shattering his career highs.
Perhaps more importantly, Lafreniere’s season came almost entirely at even strength. His two goals and four assists on the powerplay are reflective of how sparingly he was used with the man advantage yet how dominant he can be at 5v5 His 26-25-51 line at even strength was third on the team behind Panarin and Trocheck, while his 42 points at 5v5 was second behind Panarin. That line worked, and Lafreniere was no passenger.
Lafreniere was also a significant offensive play driver at 5v5, something the Rangers sorely lacked as you got deeper into the lineup. His play driving on the powerplay shouldn’t be ignored, mostly because it looks like he should be able to hold his own with more time and, let’s be real, better powerplay linemates.
His defensive play was certainly a concern, especially in limiting quality chances against. It’s something to note, but his role is not to play defensively sound hockey. It is a nice to have. His job is to create chances and convert on those chances. Vincent Trocheck is more than capable of covering for both Panarin and Lafreniere defensively as well.
Remember, role matters. It’s why Mika Zibanejad gets cut some slack for his subpar offensive season since he was serving as the defacto shutdown center, both before and after Alex Wennberg was acquired. It’s also why we give Lafreniere’s defensive numbers a bit of a pass–for now–since he was in a scoring role. Eventually we will want to see the xGA/60 get better, and it should.
In the playoffs, Lafreniere was one of the only non-Vincent Trocheck players that could score against Florida. He finished with 8-6-14 in 16 games, a solid line considering he barely played on the powerplay.
Everything is looking up for Lafreniere, who looked like he had a new lease on life under new coach Peter Laviolette. Now that the bar is off the floor, Lafreniere will be viewed as a key scorer, not just a secondary scorer. Expectations for next season won’t be sky high, but they will certainly be higher than last year.
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