As soon as the New York Rangers announced a retool to finish out the 2025-26 campaign, all eyes turned toward Artemi Panarin as a trade candidate leading up to the March 6th deadline. Still, outside of Panarin, there is another winger that the Rangers may move on from by the end of the season.
According to a recent article by Peter Baugh in The Athletic, there are indications that General Manager Chris Drury does not consider Alexis Lafrenière to be part of the team’s core moving forward. In fact, reports last week suggested that Drury met one-on-one with each of the team’s core players. Lafrenière told reporters on Monday that Drury never met with him individually.
If the Rangers seriously entertain offers for Lafrenière, and there’s no indication that they won’t, the major hurdle in any negotiation will be his contract. Lafrenière signed a seven-year, $52.15MM extension with New York last season, which began this year. Still, he doesn’t have any trade protection until the 2027-28 campaign. Even then, it’ll only be an eight-team no-trade list.
Fortunately for New York, as Baugh points out, the team has a recent trade comparable to Lafrenière. Last season, at the trade deadline, the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres traded Dylan Cozens for Joshua Norris, a swap that has seemingly benefited both sides, provided Norris can stay healthy.
At the time, each player had six years remaining on their respective contracts, with Cozens earning $7.1MM and Norris earning $7.9MM. Unfortunately, there aren’t many younger players earning similar amounts to Lafrenière that would make sense for a trade. Pavel Buchnevich of the St. Louis Blues ($8MM through 2030-31) and Brock Boeser of the Vancouver Canucks ($7.25MM through 2031-32) make some sense as fellow struggling wingers. However, the Rangers would likely ask for more considering Lafrenière is a former first-overall pick.
Regardless, moving on from top-10 picks has become a trend for the Rangers in years past. Since the 2010 NHL Draft, New York has had five first-round picks fall within the top-10, and Lafrenière is the only one that remains.
Now in his sixth season, Lafrenière has not lived up to his draft billing. During the 2023-24 campaign, he appeared to be breaking out, scoring 28 goals and 57 points in 82 games, averaging 17:16 of ice time per night. He’s never been much of a defensive stalwart, though his possession metrics are typically above average.
Unfortunately, he hasn’t come close to reaching those totals. His output dropped to 17 goals and 45 points in 82 games last season, and he’s again pacing toward 45 points this year. The only thing that Lafrenière really has going for him is that he’s remained remarkably healthy throughout his career. At the time of writing, he has only missed four regular-season contests for the Rangers.
Still, if they don’t receive a beneficial offer for Lafrenière, the Rangers aren’t really in any rush. He won’t have trade protection in his contract next season, either, which could allow New York to push serious trade negotiations to the summer. Lafrenière projects as an asset that may be a later domino to fall in the Rangers’ retool.
imagine asking for more when getting Bowser or buchnevich, two players who gave proven to be way more valuable than AL in their careers to date.
1st overall sure but even #1s can simply not live up to the draft hype.
Is this the same GM who signed Laff for a 7x $7.45M a year ago?
Just askin…
Clickbait. He didnt meet with “core players” he met with players with no trade clauses. Laffy doesnt have that, so they didnt talk. Still might get traded, but the narrative hes not a core player because they didnt sit down 1 on 1 is just false.
That’s just factually untrue. The NHL’s writeup of it said that Drury met individually with the team’s “leadership core”. Gavrikov, Borgs, and Shesterkin all have trade protection and weren’t met with.
link to nhl.com
Gav, borgan, shesterkin have clauses. Nice try.
? Yeah….like I said…they all have trade clauses and Drury didn’t meet with them. He talked to the leadership core, not just players with trade protection
But he did….so….he spoke to gav, borgan , igor…
I guess you technically could be right but that would just be conjecture at the very best. The NHL article only listed JT, Mika, Panarin, Trocheck, and Fox.
One more question.
Why do they collect top picks if they can’t draft and develop prospects anyway.
2017 #7 #21
2018 #9 #22 #28
2019 #2
2020 #1 #19
2021 #16
2023 #23
Number 1 pick should not automatically mean more valuable. I hope their stuck with him.
The Rangers bought the hype when they drafted Lafreniere 1st overall in 2020, He’s a colossal underachiever, And a third liner at best.
MSG has been cursed since Patrick Ewing was stolen by the Knicks. Somehow Leetch snuck through months later but lottery picks have been pretty poor over the last 40 years.
Apparently a player has to be in their 30’s to be in the Rangers “core”. 🤣
im a big fan of your site , so im not trying to be negative . but theres something amongst nhl media that bugs me year after year = myself or no other nhl fan cares how much lafrenieres contract is worth in total earnings ! but i do want to know his annual cap hit and for how many years ! this is how it should be done every time : 7X7.45
i say this because internet time is valuable ! i want to get to the important stuff quickly and move on