Christmas countdown wish #4: The kids break out

It’s Christmas Eve and our five day countdown of gifts we wish for the New York Rangers is almost over.  We have been counting down the last five days to Christmas and each day we’ve come up with a unique gift we’d like to see for our favorite hockey team.  We’re not just asking Santa for these gifts. On prior days we’ve made requests to the NHL, the hockey gods and Chris Drury.

We started our list by asked for the NHL to opt out of the Olympics. That one was granted almost as soon as we asked.  Wish number two was to the hockey gods, asking for a relatively injury free season.  We won’t know about that one for a few months.   Our third wish was for the team to maintain sanity at the trade deadline.  The deadline this season is March 21 so we will have to wait a while.

It’s time for wish number four and this one is directed to a group of players currently on the team. Fourth on our list?  For the kids to finally break out.

It’s time

The New York Rangers remain one of the youngest teams in the NHL.  For years, we’ve been listening to the hockey cognoscenti waxing poetic about the Blueshirts’ prospect pool.  The team still has five players who are 22 years old or younger.  Now we will direct this right to that group, specifically to Alexis Lafrenière , Kaapo Kakko and Filip Chytil.  We’ll add Julien Gauthier to that mix though he is a senior citizen in comparison at the ripe old age of 24.  Guys, it’s time to stop being prospects and break out and live up to your potential.

Kaapo Kakko

Of the young players on this list, Kakko has made the most progress though he still doesn’t turn 21 for two months.  He got off to a slow start this season, but since being moved up to the top six, he has shown flashes of the scoring ability that made him the second overall pick in 2019.  One thing is for certain, he has turned into a tenacious forechecker and a possession beast. Now, he needs to score.

It’s notable that when he got first team power play time with Panarin out of action, he was able to pot a goal and he’s become an important piece of the Zibanejad line.  With five goals and five assists in his last 16 games, his scoring has picked up.  That’s a 25 goal, 50 point pace over a full season.  We’d be happy with that.

Alexis Lafrenière

Lafrenière is another young stud who has been saddled with high expectations that were impossible to live up to.  He just turned 20 in October and still has produced 18 goals and 29 points in a little over what would be a full NHL season, mostly as a 19 year old.  Still, we want more.

It looks like he is firmly ensconced in the third line and as a result, his offensive numbers will be limited, but for his sake, we’d like to see his scoring pick up so that he won’t be under such intense pressure to live up to the hype.

The final 52 games of this season would be the perfect time for Lafrenière  to step up and start showing more consistency in his game. He has been throwing the body and while prone to defensive errors, he is learning more in every game and hopefully, Gerard Gallant’s tough love approach will begin to pay off.

Julien Gauthier

Julien Gauthier earned a starting job in mid-November after playing sparingly the first month of the season.  While his increased ice time was due to injuries, he has shown enough to start regularly since Sammy Blais went down with his injury.

Gauthier has earned kudos for his willingness to carry the puck and crash the net, but he still has scored only two goals and five points in 21 games.  That’s not good enough. The irony is that if he had displayed the scoring touch he had in juniors and the AHL, he could be playing in the top six.

Gauthier turned 24 in October, but with only four goals in 68 NHL games, he has not produced at the rate that made the Carolina Hurricanes pick him in the first round in 2016.  He has a golden opportunity to latch onto a key role with this Rangers team and the next 52 games are the perfect time to do it.

Filip Chytil

Chytil has been one of our favorite topics of discussion and there’s no chance that the debate will abate, unless Chytil finally, at 22 years old, breaks out and starts scoring goals with some regularity.   Perhaps a move the wing will be what it takes.   He’s a power winger and he needs to play like one.

Chytil has been a picture of bad puck luck.  His shooting percentage is 5.7%, better than only Gauthier. If he could get that number up and continue to drive the net there is hope that he will live up to his promise.  Though still only 22 years old, we’ve been waiting for Chytil longer than any of his peers, reminding us how young he was when he made his debut.

Our Christmas wish

While we would love these young Ranger forwards to channel Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid, we are not unrealistic.  As long as the Blueshirts have Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider on the top six, the opportunities will be limited.

That said, no Christmas gift would be nicer than some timely goals from these players, especially the forwards on the third line.  Kakko, Lafrenière, Gauthier and Chytil have accounted for 16 goals so far this season,  just over 18% of the team’s total.   That’s a fraction higher than the percentage the trio accounted for last season and they need to improve on that. If they continue at that rate the rest of the season they will score 28 goals between them. Is it too much to ask for the quartet to score 40 goals in the last 52 games of the season?  It’s doable.

Tomorrow, Christmas wish number five and that one only the hockey gods can give us.