Why Rangers should explore trading ‘unimpressive’ Alexis Lafreniere: Mollie Walker

Talk about roller coaster rides. Alexis Lafreniere sure has been on a wild one the past few years with the New York Rangers. And New York Post beat reporter Mollie Walker believes Lafreniere’s ride may have run its course in New York.

That’s pretty crazy considering Lafreniere scored 28 goals just two seasons ago, starred on the big stage during the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, signed a long-term contract extension last fall and will be just 24 years old next season. Oh, and you may have heard, he was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 draft.

Though she struggled to find the exact words to describe it, Walker believes there’s something off with Lafreniere, especially last season. And it wasn’t just his drop in production — though that certainly factors into her thinking about what the Rangers plan should be with him moving forward.

“It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for (Rangers general manager) Chris Drury to admit he committed too soon to his first overall pick and maybe see what you could get for him,” Walker told Forever Blueshirts on the RINK RAP podcast. “It just hasn’t been there in a lot of facets and I think you might want to get out sooner rather than later because it’s just been pretty unimpressive, to put it as nicely as I possibly can.”

The Rangers — and most everyone in the hockey world — believed Lafreniere finally broke through and was on his way to becoming a star after he scored 28 goals and totaled 57 points playing on a line with Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck in 2023-24. When Lafreniere tied for the Rangers lead with eight goals in 16 playoff games that spring and was one of the few players on the roster to step up in the Eastern Conference Final loss to the Florida Panthers, it appeared he was well on his way to fulfilling the massive expectations placed on him.

No one blinked an eye when the Rangers signed Lafreniere to a seven-year, $52.15 million extension last Oct. 25. In fact, Drury was lauded for locking up Lafreniere long term at a team friendly $7.45 million salary cap hit.

Everyone was happy. Lafreniere was producing — four goals, seven points in seven games at the time. Drury checked off a big item on his 2025 offseason to-do list well in advance. And the Rangers were off to a 5-1-1 start after winning the Presidents’ Trophy the year prior.

You know the rest of the story. The Rangers began to crumble in November, closed out calendar year 2024 in a 4-15-0 freefall and ultimately missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in four seasons.

And Lafreniere? In the 12 games after signing his extension, Lafreniere continued to produce with four goals and nine points, though there were some early rumblings about his overall play.

Then the spigot turned off. Lafreniere scored nine more goals the rest of the season, and finished with 17 goals and 45 points.

“After Alexis signed the extension, it seemed like the gas just turned off a little bit and that was disappointing to see,” Walked stated.

It appeared Lafreniere lost confidence. He scored three goals in his final 30 games, was taken off the line with Trocheck and Panarin for stretches, and compounded things with subpar defensive play and, some would contend, lack of effort.

The malaise that overtook the Rangers collectively, appeared to settle in with their rising star.

“I thought I had a good start, then struggled to be consistent in my game,” Lafreniere said at break-up day. “I didn’t really make a difference. I’m obviously disappointed in my year.

“Obviously, when you go for a big stretch without scoring, you kind of question yourself and your game. But that’s not an excuse, you always have to be ready to perform and to put up better numbers, and I didn’t this season, for sure.”

Rangers need more from Alexis Lafreniere next season if not traded this summer

This isn’t the first time in Lafreniere’s five-year career that his name’s popped up in trade rumors. And, to be fair, Walker didn’t say that the Rangers should dump him just to get him off the roster. Her take is that the Rangers should explore what they might be able to get in return because Lafreniere just might not be a player to build around moving forward.

Under the microscope since joining the League as a 19-year-old, Lafreniere’s played for three different coaches already, and the Rangers just hired Mike Sullivan to replace the fired Peter Laviolette. There’s no doubt Lafreniere failed to meet massive expectations his first three seasons, when there were calls already to ship him out of New York. Lafreniere has 193 points (92 goals, 101 assists) in 380 games.

Many argue correctly that Lafreniere played mostly on the third line and received no run on the power play in that span, and that things got much better when bumped up by Laviolette to play with Panarin and Trocheck 5v5 last season. However, that threesome failed to recreate their magic this in 2024-25, even though Panarin led the Rangers with 37 goals and 89 points (down from 49 and 120 in 2023-24).

“This is coming from someone who was just so impressed with the Trocheck-Panarin-Lafreniere line last season. They were the best 5-on-5 line in the entire NHL. But, where did that go?,” Walker asked.

Great question. As is, who’s to blame for that line’s reduced production?

“Trocheck kept coming back to that they showed up and expected it all to be the same, for them to just cruise on through, and it would just be a formality to get to the playoffs,” Walker said. “You can’t just show up. You never just show up. That was his broader response to it.”

Underlying to what she said is that perhaps Lafreniere didn’t work hard enough during this season and to prepare for this season after his massive breakout against the Panthers in the conference final.

“He was the freshest guy. He was very effective. He was the only one who really looked like he could do something,” she explained. “I don’t know. It comes and goes. Listen, every player can be streaky, but I wouldn’t call Alexis streaky, that’s just not the word I would use because there were only one or two streaks where it was good [in the 2024-25 season].”

There’s plenty of reason to argue against trading Lafreniere. His underlying stats, per Natural Stat Trick, were among the best on the Rangers this season, though he was on ice for more goals against than for 5v5 (65-62) and pretty much every player on the roster had subpar stats.

He didn’t always pass the eye test, especially defensively, but it’s hard to imagine Sullivan wants Lafreniere to be shipped away before he can get his hands on such a talented player.

It’ll be curious to see what the new Rangers bench boss has to say on the topic at his introductory press conference on Thursday.