How will phenom Alexis Lafrenière fit into the Rangers’ lineup?

Taking a look at how the star left-winger fits will fit into a New York Rangers lineup with two great left-wings

On Monday night the New York Rangers beat the odds and won the right to draft first overall in the 2020 NHL Draft. The prize, in all likelihood, will come in the form of Alexis Lafrenière, the prolific Canadian left-winger who plays for the Rimouski Oceanic, the same team that developed Sidney Crosby.

While I think there is merit to the argument of taking Quinton Byfield over Lafrenière at first overall due to the Rangers’ need for a center, Lafrenière has not taken a wrong step all season and will very likely be the pick. I’ll dive into that at some point, but I think Lafrenière is just too much of a shoo-in to become a star for the Rangers to pass up. The Rangers also have assets they can move to acquire a center. But the question remains, how do the Rangers fit in another left winger on a team with Panarin and Kreider? What will Lafrenière’s role on the team be? Let’s take a look!

Is he a potential center?

The most common misinformation that I see about Lafrenière is that he is a center. He does not play center at all for Rimouski and has explicitly stated that he prefers to play on the wing. The logic behind it is that he is more than smart enough to play center. He is, and if the Rangers want to see if he would make a good center, I could see them trying him out there. That said, I don’t think it is likely to be his position at the NHL level because that transition is difficult even for smart players.

So if he isn’t going to be a center, Gorton and co have to start thinking about what they want to do about their winger situation. Panarin, Kreider, Buchnevich, Lafreniere, Kakko, Kravtsov is a pretty scary group of wingers. You probably have three all-star caliber players in that group once Kakko and Lafreniere develop. Panarin, Kreider, and Lafrenière are all left-wings and I personally believe Kravtsov may be a better fit on the left-side as well. Two of those players already have a long-term contract with a No-Movement Clause. That leaves Kakko and Buchnevich on the right. So what should the Rangers do?

Staying on the left side

With Lafrenière, I really think in the short-term it is in his best interest to stay as a left-wing. Having three top-six caliber players in one position is a very good problem to have, and you don’t want to throw off his development by making him play in a position that he is not familiar with. If he is as dominant in his first season as some think he might be, then I think Quinn’s first choice will be to move Kreider to the right side. That has not led to a lot of success in the past, but I think it would be preferable to putting a rookie in an uncomfortable situation.

Another scenario that I could see as a possibility is Panarin switching to the right side. Panarin’s style is very fluid and he makes an impact all over the ice, I really don’t think it would affect his productivity at all. If you put Panarin on a line with Lafrenière you could stick a remote-controlled traffic cone with a stick taped to it between them at center and it would still somehow score 50 points.

I’m sort of kidding, but in the same way that an elite center makes average wingers better, elite wingers can elevate an average center if the center plays their role correctly. A great example of that is Ryan Strome this year, who had a career year playing with an MVP candidate in winger Artemi Panarin.

The long term view

Long term, the Rangers are probably going to have to move some of their wing-depth to shore up their defensive and center depth. I love Pavel Buchnevich, but I now struggle to see how he has a long-term future in New York. Vitali Kravtsov is one of the few major trade assets the Rangers have that hasn’t made an NHL impact yet. To me, that screams a possible trade piece, and I don’t think he is untouchable. But let’s jump back to Lafrenière.

If two years down the road Lafrenière is dominating and the NHL is still evolving into a more positionless game, then I could see Lafrenière making the switch to another position, at least on paper. I doubt he switches to center, but I could see him switching  to right wing. In the short term though, he is a left-winger and should be treated as one by Quinn and his staff. Long story short, if a player is going to change their position to accommodate Lafrenière’s presence this season, I think it is either Kreider or Panarin, not Lafrenière. That said, I don’t think either switch will be necessary right away and this is a real luxury for the Rangers.

This is an incredibly exciting time to be a Rangers fan. The (likely) addition of Lafrenière will give the Rangers the kind of homegrown skater talent they have not had since Brian Leetch. There is a possibility that the Rangers go with Byfield and I will take a look at the merits of that argument in another piece, but both players are Canada’s best prospects since Connor McDavid. This is a special draft and the fact that the Rangers have their pick of the litter is just incredible. So for now, just soak it all in.