New York Rangers: Readers weigh in on the Lafreniere debate
What should the New York Rangers do with the top pick in the NHL draft?
It’s undeniable, the very fact that Blueshirts fans are pondering what to do with the top pick in the NHL Entry Draft is a gift from the hockey gods. It’s a win-win situation, the New York Rangers either keep the pick and select Alexis Lafreniere or trade the pick for a king’s ransom in players and prospects.
No topic has generated as much conversation as this one and we thought it would be a great idea to solicit comments from Blue Line Station readers. We also conducted an absolutely unscientific Twitter poll.
If the New York Rangers were offered an amazing deal in exchange for their 1st overall pick in the NHL Entry Draft, what should they do?
— Blue Line Station (@BlueLineStation) August 27, 2020
While there are a lot of intangibles and the very definition of “an amazing deal” is unclear, what is clear is that a majority of fans think the Rangers should hold onto the pick. 159 folks voted and 84.9% want the Rangers to keep the pick with only 15.1% siding with a trade. That’s 135 of 159 votes for keeping the pick.
But we also wanted to hear from our readers and we got a number of responses. While keeping the pick has its supporters, the idea of a big trade got some creative juices flowing. Here are some of the responses:
No trade
The no trade contingent voted on Twitter, but didn’t send us many emails. However, there’s not much more to say, is there?
Tim had a pretty concise comment:
“Hi Guys. No way are the rangers trading Lafrieniere. Talk of this is 100% ridiculous. Where do you guys come up with this crazy stuff? lol”
Braxton from Utah has no doubts:
“The Rangers should 100% take Lafreniere. He is being compared to superstars like Nathan Mackinnon and Nikita Kucherov. If we get him our third line would be one of the best in the league with either him or Krieder. Overall it is a no brainer, take Lafreniere.”
Vincent Tropeano made a good point about quantity vs. quality
“My option is short and sweet. The Rangers are at a point when they may have too much of a good thing. We already cannot make room in the lineup for Vitali Kravtsov, Morgan Barron , K’Andre Miller and others. If the cupboards were bare then a big package with players/picks would be a bigger point of need. So I say pick Lafreniere then use other assets to move up in the draft and pick Lundell.”
Pistolpete1967 is thinking budgetary constraints:
“At first I thought it may be a good idea to trade the first overall pick and get a load of assets but there will come a time when you may have to pay all these players if they all pan out. I don’t think it would be possible in a salary cap world.”
From Sid V, a word of warning!
“Don’t dare to trade the #1 pick, hockey gods will be furious”
Keep the pick, unless….
A few of our readers were not quite so definitive, definitely in favor of keeping the pick unless a truly fabulous deal was proposed. In all reality, this has to be the position of John Davidson and Jeff Gorton. They must want to keep the pick and draft Lafreniere but if a team is willing to make an offer that they cannot refuse, they will take the deal.
If Gorton does pull the trigger on a trade, be prepared for a deluge of Godfather memes.
Vincent from Germany says keep him, but…
“Hey there, hope you are doing fine in these trying times. My name is Vincent and I’m a 28 years old fan from Würzburg (Germany). And I would like to share my thoughts on the first pick with you.
First idea came to my mind was no matter what happens keep the first pick and get Lafrenière. I’m dreaming about a talented 3rd row, which will may not help us next season, but we could give them a chance and build strong fundamentals for our future. I’m talking about Lafrenière – Chytil – Kravtsov | Miller – Fox. Just imagine what is possible if those five guys start to work together and it would be fantastic to see all of the together on the ice. There is just one thing I would give up this idea/dream, if Ottawa offers us Tkachuk, the third pick, the fifth pick. No idea why they should do this, but because the Kings will be choosing Stützle for sure ( and Detroit will also pick an offensive player) we could get Byfield, Drysdale and Tkachuk. Thats the only … absolutely the only trade I would accept.
Sorry for my English. Stay safe and just the best wishes from Germany.”
Blue Line Station Analysis: Looking at the proposed trade with Ottawa, if the Kings are indeed committed to drafting Tim Stutzle and the Rangers could end up with Tkachuk, Byfield and Drysdale, whew, that’s a pretty good return. But, where is the Stutzle information coming from?
From Steve Hoffman, a similar sentiment:
“Only if it’s like Tkachuk, #3 & #5…but that’s not going to be offered ….so just select Lafreniere.”
Some trade proposals
Playing armchair general manager is fun. Pulling off a deal with no fear of consequences is even more fun. The fact that Montreal is the one team that has the most to gain and could therefore make the best offer was not lost on our readers.
From Nick from NYC, a deal in two phases:
“I have a crazy buy not a off the wall trade. Let me start by saying the NYR should keep the #1 pick but if they did trade it…Rangers’ #1 pick, Ryan Strome,Tony DeAngelo, K’Andre Miller and this year’s third round pick and next year’s second round to Buffalo for Jack Eichel, Rasmus Dahlin and their eighth overall pick this year. Then call Ottawa send them the 2020 eighth pick, next year’s first round pick round and one of the Rangers’ defense prospects and a goalie prospect for their third overall pick this year.”
Blue Line Station Analysis: Interesting proposal. Eichel for Lafreniere is not farfetched and it’s a decent package in exchange for Rasmus Dahlin. With their history of failure, the Sabres cannot afford to mess this up. As far as the second part of the deal, the question is whether the Senators would want to give up that third overall pick.
From Biglemon50, an ambitious proposal:
“I would definitely keep the number one pick and draft Lafreniere and then make a trade with Los Angeles for the number two pick. Send Ryan Strome, Tony DeAngelo and this year’s second first round pick and draft Quinton Byfield. Now you have your big center and power forward of the future.”
Blue Line Station Analysis: It’s a great idea to end up with Lafreniere and Byfield, but it’s doubtful that Los Angeles would give up that pick fro the return proposed. Two good NHL players and a mid-twenties first rounder for a player projected to be a star NHL center? Not sure it’s enough.
From Luigic173, who liked the deals we mentioned:
“If Gretzky can be traded in his prime then everyone has a price plain and simple. That hypothetical package from Montreal you entailed, I would make that deal in a heartbeat. Nick Suzuki looks like he is already a star and then you get an established player with grit in Max Domi which the Rangers need dearly and to top it off, a blue chip sniper prospect in Cole Caufield plus a pick albeit later. If Ottawa calls up Gorton and offers both their picks and the likes of Tkachuk or Chabot, you ship out the first pick.
Lafreniere is a great player of course but if a team offers a package that fills several holes at once, especially center, then they at the very least must consider. In the end I believe Gorton will retain the pick as Alexis is on his own level in this draft but you never know.”
Blue Line Station Analysis: The Montreal proposal is pretty formidable as well as the Senators proposal. Suzuki and Domi are really good young players, the wild card is Caufield. If he can score in the NHL like he has throughout his career, this could be a deal worth doing. As for Ottawa, swapping the first overall of two top five picks and Brady Tkachuk is pretty tempting.
Ken Black has a plan:
“The deal: Rangers first overall pick in 2020 draft year plus Brendan Smith to Montreal. Montreal trades Nick Suzuki (2nd line centre) and Ben Chiarot (first pair left defense to pair with Trouba). In 2019-2020 he was partnered with Weber as Montreal’s first defense pairing. Montreal also sends the Rangers right defense prospect Cale Fleury (one year remaining at $761,666), prospect Cole Caufield and their 16th overall first round pick.
Financially, the inclusion of Smith ($4,350,000 1 year, approximately balances cap dollars (2020-2021 only); Suzuki has 2 years remaining at $863,333, Chiarot – 2 years at $3,500,000.
Independently, Strome traded and the Rangers bundle the Canadiens’ 16thoverall pick and their own second first round pick to move up and take a big centre.”
Blue Line Station Analysis: While this is an interesting deal, the belief has to be that the Canadiens would be willing to give up even more to get that French-Canadian star they have been searching for. We’d probably insist on Alexander Romanov over Cale Fleury and if Romanov was available, Josh Brook or Mattias Norlinder are thought to be higher on the depth chart than Fleury. his deal doesn’t give the Rangers the toughness they are looking for (Max Domi) and the question is whether Brendan Smith would waive his modified no trade clause if Montreal isn’t on his ten team list.
Summing up
Thanks to all for contributing to the discussion. When we published our original story soliciting these responses, we had over 50 comments (you can read them here).
With the draft scheduled for October 9, you can look forward to at least a month’s worth of speculation about trade and even if they pick Lafreniere, there is no guarantee that Gorton won’t be persuaded to make a deal. All we can do is stay tuned and speculate. As we said, better to be able to speculate than not.