Lafrenière and the WJC

One year ago there was little debate about Alexis Lafrenière taking part in the World Junior Championships, though he was eligible to go.  His preference was to train and prepare for his debut with the New York Rangers as the most heralded rookie in franchise history.  It’s easy to say it now, but maybe he should have gone.

Hindsight is wonderful and it’s always easy to say woulda, coulda, shoulda, but in Lafrenière’s case, he might have really benefited from going to Edmonton and playing for Team Canada.  Sure, he had dominated the previous year, named the MVP of the tournament and there was a definite “been there, done that” sense, but we never really will know if he wanted to play and was discouraged by the Rangers or if it was his decision.

Why go?

Unlike this year’s truncated edition, last year they played the entire tournament with teams making to the medal round playing eight games each.   Team USA beat Canada in the gold medal game 2-0, a result that might have been different if Lafrenière had been there.

But the reason for him to go was not for Canada to win gold, but for him to actually play hockey.  When the QMJHL season was suspended on March 9, 2000, Lafrenière had come off a three assist performance against the Shawinigan Cataractes.  It gave him 35 goals and 77 assists for 112 points in 52 games.   Earlier, at the WJC in January he had four goals and 10 points in five games, leading Canada to a gold medal.

Lafrenière did not play hockey from March 8, 2000 until the Rangers first game on January 14, 2001.  No QMJHL playoffs or NHL preseason.  Ten months of not playing a game.  Then he walked into the New York pressure cooker of high expectations. It was a disaster waiting to happen.

If the Rangers had him play at the WJC, he would have been playing hockey for most of December and would have had very meaningful games against some very tough competition.  There’s no reason to believe  that, playing against kids his age, he wouldn’t have excelled as he did the year before.

He would have come to Rangers training camp a few days late, but in great shape and ready to go. Theoretically he would have been brimming with confidence and in a great position to succeed. It certainly worked for 3rd overall pick Tim Stützle of the Ottawa Senators who played at the WJC for Germany and then transitioned seamlessly to the NHL.  Stützle finished his rookie season with 12 goals and 29 points,  slightly better than Lafrenière’s 12 goals and 21 points.

If Lafrenière had shown that he needed work  by playing badly at the tournament, Hartford was not an option.  As a 19 year old he would have had to return to Rimouski.  That’s another reason for going to the WJC.  It would have given the Rangers a much better look at what they were getting.

Lafrenière,  Stützle and Buffalo’s Dylan Cozens were the only WJC participants to play the entire season in the NHL.  Number two pick Quinton Byfield played at the tournament and then spent the season in the AHL when the OHL season was cancelled.

The McTavish example

The Anaheim Ducks are doing the right thing with 18-year-old Mason McTavish.  After drafting him third overall in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, they signed him to an Entry Level Contract.  Surprising everyone, he made his NHL debut on opening night and scored a goal.

After three games he suffered a lower body injury that sidelined him and necessitated a conditioning stint in the AHL.  He returned to Anaheim and played six more games finishing with two goals and three points in nine games.  At that point, the Ducks returned him to the Petersborough Petes to not burn off a year of his ELC.

He played two games for Canada at the WJC this year, scoring three goals and five points.  He will most likely return to Peterborough to finish out the season.

And that’s where there is a difference between the Rangers and the Ducks.  Anaheim is one of the early surprises of 2021-22.  They are in firm possession of second place in the Pacific Division with 41 points (only one less than the Blueshirts) and after missing the playoffs for three straight season, the Ducks look like a playoff contender.

Yet, they took a young player who had demonstrated he had the chops to play in the NHL as a soon to be 19-year-old (his birthday is January 30)  and returned him to junior hockey and let him play at the WJC.

As good as McTavish is, he will benefit from the extra year in Junior hockey and his brief WJC experience.

The question is, if the Rangers had been McTavish’s team, does anyone think that they would have returned him to juniors after a start like that?

 Back to Lafrenière

It hasn’t been a disaster for the Rangers’ young prospect.  He’s had some highlight goals and had impactful games.  The problem is they just don’t happen as often as we thought they would.

The issues Lafrenière has had in his brief NHL career are perplexing.  It’s not just that he is not the dominant player he was in junior hockey.  It’s the issues he has has adjusting to the NHL and the fact that in some games he seems to disappear.

Surely it has to do with his deployment and the fact that he joined a team that didn’t need him to be a dominant player. We also know that he just turned 20 years old.  But there is one intangible we can only speculate about and that is how much it hurt him to not play for 11 months, arguably the most important period of time for him to prepare to become a professional.

And that’s why he might have benefited from playing at the WJC last year.

Shame on us

You can’t just fault the Rangers for for Lafrenière not going to the WJC.  We were pretty vocal about it as well.  The memory of Kirby Dach’s wrist injury that cost him the tournament and most of his NHL season was fresh in our minds.  It’s worth noting that the Blackhawks were willing to let Dach play at the WJC although he had already played a full season with Chicago in 2019-20.

Also, the hype surrounding Lafrenière was at its peak just before the season started.  We all expected the second coming of Auston Matthews or Mitch Marner.

We’ll never know what would have happened if he had gone to the tournament. The Rangers’ track record of developing young players in the Gorton regime wasn’t stellar, but there are success stories (Lindgren, Miller, Buchnevich).

As we said, hindsight is a wonderful thing.  It’s just worth remembering that young players need development time the next time the Rangers leave Braden Schneider, Zac Jones, Matthew Robertson or Lauri Pajuniemi in Hartford.