SAN JOSE, Calif. — There’s no secret fraternity for No. 1 overall NHL draft picks, where they get together once a year to compare notes. And Alexis Lafreniere doesn’t know Macklin Celebrini.
“Not really no,’’ Lafreniere told Newsday after the Rangers’ morning skate Friday, before their late game against Celebrini and the San Jose Sharks at the SAP Center. “I mean, I watch him play. Great player, [but] I don’t really know him. I never really talked to him.’’
Celebrini, 19, is in his second year in the NHL, after being the No. 1 pick overall in 2024. Entering Friday, he led the Sharks in scoring with 24 goals and 72 points — more than double the 34 points recorded by the team’s second-leading scorer, Alexander Wennberg. And he will represent Canada in next month’s Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina.
Lafreniere, 24, the No. 1 pick overall in 2020, is in the midst of another just OK season —10 goals and 28 points in 51 games entering Friday. That projects to 16 goals, 45 points over a full 82-game season. It’s right around his 82-game averages of 19 goals and 42 points, and not bad for a second-line winger on a bottom-half team like the Rangers. But it’s well below what was expected from him.
Coming out of junior hockey in Canada, he was supposed to be a generational player. But he certainly hasn’t been that. He’s been OK, a young player who was able to contribute, but as the No. 1 pick overall, he was expected to be an instant star, like Celebrini has been with the Sharks.
“What he’s accomplished at his age is impressive,’’ Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said of Celebrini. “I made the comment [Thursday] that he reminds me of a young Sidney Crosby [who played for Sullivan in Pittsburgh], and it’s the ultimate compliment. And I don’t throw that compliment lightly. That’s a bold statement that I made, but I’m being honest.’’
What’s ironic about the statement is that it was Lafreniere who was supposed to be the next Crosby. He played for the same junior team as Crosby, Rimouski of the Quebec and Maritimes Junior Hockey League (formerly the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League), and he was the second player after Crosby to twice win the Canadian Hockey League Player of the Year and QMJHL MVP.
But that’s where any similarities with Crosby end. And Lafreniere said he doesn’t compare himself to Celebrini, or to other recent No. 1 picks like Chicago’s Connor Bedard, New Jersey’s Jack Hughes or the Islanders’ Matthew Schaefer, either.
“Not really,’’ he said. “They’ve been unreal. So I still have to work on my game. Get better.’’
With the Rangers now in “retool’’ mode, as per general manager Chris Drury’s message to the fans a week ago, there’s been plenty of speculation about which Rangers are going to be traded away at the NHL’s March 6 trade deadline. Lafreniere, who is in the first year of a seven-year contract that carries an average annual value of $7.45 million, is one whose name has been thrown out there as being potentially available.
It would seem to go against the grain for a self-described retooling team that is trying to get younger to trade a 24-year-old, former No. 1 overall pick who had 102 goals in 431 (out of a possible 434) games over his six-year career. But the Rangers may just want to move on — as they did last season with former No. 2 overall pick Kaapo Kakko — if they can get a palatable return for him. And it may be that Lafreniere might do well with a change of scenery.
Lafreniere, who comes from suburban Montreal, said he likes being on the Rangers and he isn’t worrying about possibly being traded. But is he not worried because he doesn’t think he’ll be traded, or because he’d be OK with being traded?
“I mean, you never know what can happen, really,’’ he said, dodging the question. “But I’m here, and I like being here, and we have a great group. So, yeah, I don’t worry about it. I’m just trying to play and whatever happens, happens.’’
If he doesn’t end up getting traded, Lafreniere was asked what he wants to accomplish in the final 30 games (after Friday) of the season.
“Just a little more consistency,’’ he said. “I’ve had some good games and some bad games. So I think you’ve got to try to stack more good games in a row, play a little bit more consistent. That’d be my bigger thing.’’
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.