32 teams, 32 players: Alexis Lafreniere

Getting ready for the start of the season by highlighting one player on every NHL team that is worth paying attention to this season. We continue today with Alexis Lafreniere of the New York Rangers.

We are inching our way toward the start of the 2024-25 NHL season, and as we get closer we are going to highlight one player on each team that stands out for the season. What kind of player? Well, a player that could make a difference, be an X-factor, be on the verge of a breakout, or just simply be a player under the microscope and needing to have a big season.

Basically — which player do I think is the most fascinating on each team.

We are not going in any particularly order and continue today with Alexis Lafreniere of the New York Rangers.

---

The biggest wild card for the New York Rangers’ rebuild resulting in a championship was always going to hinge on whether or not the top draft picks — specifically Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko — could develop into the type of cornerstone players every championship team needs.

As good as their veteran additions have been, and as dominant as Adam Fox and Igor Shesterkin are on the back end, they need at least one of those top picks to pan out as expected.

So far, the results have been mixed.

Kakko is the type of player whose box score stats are not going to wow you, but he is still a very useful — and good! — player that does a lot of the grunt work on his line. But because it has not produced big goal or point totals for him personally, he gets the bust label thrown around from those that don’t watch him consistently or value his contributions. If he was a No. 24 pick instead of a No. 2 pick the perception of him as a player would probably be very, very different.

There is still probably another level there for him to get to, but I’m not ready to give up on that just yet.

Whether or not the Rangers are ready to give up on that remains to be seen.

Lafreniere, on the other hand, is starting to show some signs that he might end up being the type of player the Rangers expected, wanted and need him to be as a top pick.

Over the last three months of the 2023-24 season and throughout the playoffs, he absolutely played like it and there is nothing to indicate it was a fluke.

Let’s talk about it.