Should Alexis Lafrenière get the Georgiev treatment?

If you want an argument when it comes to the New York Rangers, bring up Alexis Lafrenière. Mention his name and you will get an instant debate.  Critics will say he is soft or weak  defensively. That he doesn’t hit, makes bad passes and is holding back his linemates.  They are quick to opine that in Lafrenière, the Rangers have made the worst first overall pick in NHL history and at the ripe old age of 20 years and two months, he is a bust.

A more reasonable assessment is that is still young and unlike most other top picks, he didn’t land on a team that would play him on the top six and the power play.  Supporters will point out he has played 83 NHL games, the equivalent of one full season, and has 18 goals and 11 assists for 29 points. They will argue that it is not awful production for a teenager playing on the bottom six.   They will say that seven of his 18 goals have been game winners and he has shown flashes of the skillset that the Rangers thought that they had drafted.

And that’s where a comparison to Alexandar Georgiev may make sense.

Gallant’s coaching

We all love Gerard Gallant.  He’s a player’s coach and is pushing all the right buttons this amazing season.  If there is one thing we have seen from him in his first season as New York Rangers head coach, it’s that he wants to win and will go with the lineup that he thinks gives the team the best chance.

That’s why Igor Shesterkin started 17 of the first 22 games of the season.  That’s why Libor Hajek didn’t see any action in the first 26 games of the season.  That’s why he yanked Alexandar Georgiev for the third period of a tie game.  That’s why Adam Fox is averaging 24:34 minutes of ice time despite the fact that Gallant had said in the preseason that he didn’t want to overplay anybody, including Fox. That’s why Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad played over nine minutes in the third period against Nashville.

He rides the hot hand. If the first power play unit is clicking, they will play 1:40 of the man advantage. If they aren’t, they are off the ice after a minute.

One result of this coaching strategy is that if some players are not playing “well” they will see reduced ice time.  That’s what happened on Sunday when Alexis Lafrenière saw only two shifts and played 1:38 in the third period.   Gallant didn’t explain why, saying he, “Just wanted to give him a seat, he wasn’t alone.”

Well, the only forward to see less ice time in the third period was Ryan Reaves and Reaves is not the forward you would expect to get a lot of playing time in a game the Rangers are trailing by one goal. Kaapo Kakko saw his ice time in the third period reduced by about a third to 3:23, but he still took regular shifts.

Gallant has shown a thin skin when asked about Lafreniere’s playing time and earlier this season had a minor tiff with Mollie Walker of the New York Post.  She asked Gallant about Lafreniere’s playing time and Gallant didn’t like the question, responding.  “Are you kidding me? The kid played tonight, give it a rest.”  He then piled on saying, “I thought he was fine…like there’s nothing more than Lafrenière tonight? Guys scored some good goals, we played some good hockey and you’re going to bring up Lafrenière again? Give the kid a break.”

That was after a game when Lafrenière sat for extended periods and played only 9:02, his fewest minutes this season. FYI, he played 9:18 versus Nashville.

While that strategy makes sense for winning games, what is it doing to Lafrenière ‘s confidence?

The Georgiev parallel

Ranger fans have been watching Alexandar Georgiev since 2018.  We know that he is a very capable goaltender who has the ability to steal games.  The big criticism is that he falters when playing a lot of games in a row, but there’s a reason the Rangers gave him a $2.45 million contract in the off-season.

After losing opening night by a 5-1 score (including three power play goals) to an amped up Capitals team, he was replaced in net by Shesterkin and found himself playing once every 10 days.

The pressure to perform when he got the rare start affected him and he soon found himself on the bench most games, only starting when the Rangers had back-to-back games.  With the worst stats of any NHL goalie, it looked like the Rangers’ backup goalie was severely compromised by a lack of confidence.  Some in the fanbase were calling for him to be replaced by journeyman goalie Keith Kinkaid.

Then Shesterkin got hurt and Georgiev got his chance to play, knowing that he would be getting most of the starts.  While Ranger fans looked at it with trepidation, Georgiev responded and now  he is where he was last season, an excellent 1A goalie, good for 30 starts or more.

The question is whether Georgiev would have been able to reclaim his season if Shesterkin had not been waylaid.  Relegated to the role of  goalie who only plays on back-to-back games, would he have been able to regain his confidence and the form he is showing now?

And that’s where there could be a parallel to Alexis Lafrenière.  Early this season he got an audition in the top six, playing on the left side of Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider.  He wasn’t great, but that lasted all of 39 minutes of 5v5 play.  Compare that to the 91 minutes Kakko has played with the duo.  For perspective,  Zibanejad and Kreider have been on the ice 5v5 for 179 minutes.

Forget the idea of him playing on the off wing with Ryan Strome and Artemi Panarin.  He’s played 70 seconds with that duo at 5v5 since the start of the season.  Lafrenière has spent most of his time, 109 minutes, with Filip Chytil and Julien Gauthier.

Is it unreasonable to wonder if Lafreniere ‘s confidence has been damaged by his deployment since he joined the Rangers?  On the surface, he doesn’t display any lack of confidence, but if he is second guessing his own play it will mean that nano-second of a delay in shooting or passing and that’s the difference between success and failure.

Remember, this is a player who has always been the go-to player on his teams, playing the most minutes in the highest pressure situations.  It’s why he was named CHL player of the year for two straight seasons and was the MVP of Team Canada that won the gold medal at the 2020 WJC. Watch him now and you wonder what happened to that player.

What to do

The Rangers should have let Lafrenière get his first pro experience in the minor leagues last season.  He probably would have benefited by a confidence-building stint in Hartford this season.  That ship has sailed.

Should the Rangers learn a lesson from what has happened with Alexandar Georgiev?  When he was forced into a starting role due to injury, he responded to the challenge and has reclaimed his career. Could the same thing happen with Lafrenière if he knows he isn’t looking over his shoulder and facing a benching if he makes a mistake?

If the Dryden Hunt experiment has run its course and Kakko belongs on the Strome line, should Lafrenière get another shot at playing on the Zibanejad line?  If there is one thing we all think we know, it’s that he is the most skilled of any of the bottom six forwards. Give him a chance to prove it.

The Rangers’ fast start has given them a cushion and a chance to fine tune this lineup as they prepare for a playoff run.  They have a problem at wing on the top six and you can be sure that they will look to solve it.  That means trading young assets at the deadline for a rental or a return to the past practice of mortgaging the future in exchange for short term success.

Why not find out if they have a home grown solution before trading for a Phil Kessel?