{"id":423684,"date":"2026-01-23T14:22:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T14:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/423684\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T14:22:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T14:22:06","slug":"latest-on-new-york-rangers-alexis-lafreniere-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/423684\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest On New York Rangers, Alexis Lafreniere \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

As soon as the New York Rangers announced<\/a> a retool to finish out the 2025-26 campaign, all eyes turned toward Artemi Panarin<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

According to a recent article by Peter Baugh in The Athletic<\/a>, there are indications that General Manager Chris Drury<\/a> does not consider Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re<\/a> to be part of the team\u2019s core moving forward. In fact, reports last week suggested that Drury met one-on-one with each of the team\u2019s core players. Lafreni\u00e8re told reporters on Monday that Drury never met with him individually.<\/p>\n

If the Rangers seriously entertain offers for Lafreni\u00e8re, and there\u2019s no indication that they won\u2019t, the major hurdle in any negotiation will be his contract. Lafreni\u00e8re signed a seven-year, $52.15MM extension with New York last season, which began this year. Still, he doesn\u2019t have any trade protection until the 2027-28 campaign. Even then, it\u2019ll only be an eight-team no-trade list.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for New York, as Baugh points out, the team has a recent trade comparable to Lafreni\u00e8re. Last season, at the trade deadline, the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres traded\u00a0Dylan Cozens<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0Joshua Norris<\/a>, a swap that has seemingly benefited both sides, provided Norris can stay healthy.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t many younger players earning similar amounts to Lafreni\u00e8re that would make sense for a trade. Pavel Buchnevich<\/a> of the St. Louis Blues ($8MM through 2030-31) and Brock Boeser<\/a> 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 Lafreni\u00e8re is a former first-overall pick.<\/p>\n

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 Lafreni\u00e8re is the only one that remains.<\/p>\n

Now in his sixth season, Lafreni\u00e8re 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\u2019s never been much of a defensive stalwart, though his possession metrics are typically above average.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, he hasn\u2019t come close to reaching those totals. His output dropped to 17 goals and 45 points in 82 games last season, and he\u2019s again pacing toward 45 points this year. The only thing that Lafreni\u00e8re really has going for him is that he\u2019s remained remarkably healthy throughout his career. At the time of writing, he has only missed four regular-season contests for the Rangers.<\/p>\n

Still, if they don\u2019t receive a beneficial offer for Lafreni\u00e8re, the Rangers aren\u2019t really in any rush. He won\u2019t have trade protection in his contract next season, either, which could allow New York to push serious trade negotiations to the summer. Lafreni\u00e8re projects as an asset that may be a later domino to fall in the Rangers\u2019 retool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As soon as the New York Rangers announced a retool to finish out the 2025-26 campaign, all eyes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5111],"tags":[304,5,3328,35,5190,5193,4,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-423684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-rangers","8":"tag-alexis-lafreniere","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-rangers","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkrangers","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-rangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115944865471377394","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}