Alexis Lafreniere will be scratched for tonight’s game

After his very public demotion in the last game against Washington to the fourth line and some comments to the media that have since gone around the fan base, Gerard Gallant has opted to leave former 1st overall pick, Alexis Lafreniere, off of the roster for tonight’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. It’s a major statement tonight from the New York Rangers and their coaching staff.

This is a big statement because Lafreniere is a restricted free agent at the end of the season. Taking him out of the lineup when he isn’t signed could serve as a signal to the player that he isn’t liked or valued by the coaching staff. When a player with Lafreniere’s immense potential feels this way, it’s a lot more of a big issue than it would be if a fourth-line grinder who is on the other side of 30 felt this way.

Lafreniere coming out of the lineup will also likely affect his trade value. If Chris Drury doesn’t want to re-sign the first overall pick from 2020, shipping him off is going to be the best sense of asset management. With Lafreniere being labeled as a generational talent when he was drafted, there is a reason to be skeptical about this if you are a Ranger fan. A lot of GMs will be sniffing around this situation.

Why Gallant has done this, I’m not so sure. Whether this is a lesson to the player that he needs to be better or if Gallant thinks that the lineup is genuinely better without the Quebecois in the lineup is unclear. With how the coaching staff has handled the Vitali Kravtsov situation this year, there’s a lot of reason to be concerned with how this situation is developing. No one wants to see an ugly divorce between the parties here.

Lafreniere has seen success when he was playing with Mika Zibanejad and Kaapo Kakko on the top line together. His production has had some problems with Lafreniere only having 5 goals to go with his 12 assists for 17 points. He’s not scoring enough to atone for the defensive problems he’s had recently. Hopefully, this comes to a conclusion with everyone happy and better for it, but this has the potential to get ugly if Lafreniere doesn’t act with the utmost maturity.