Three Trade Destinations for New York Rangers Forward Alexis Lafreniere

With salary cap space tight this summer, there are a lot of fans wondering what is going to happen with the team moving forward. With two restricted free agents open to an offer sheet at this moment, there are fans worried that they may see the Rangers lose young pieces off the roster for little to no value if the Blueshirts cannot sort out their salary cap shenanigans.

A lot of fans are wondering what is going to happen with former first-overall pick and incredible talent Alexis Lafreniere. Because of the scratching of the former QMJHL star, there have been rumors flying forever about his future in New York and how he could be on his way out. It’s been reported multiple times that the Rangers wish to retain Lafreniere, but why should we let a little sane asset management get in the way of some good ol’ speculation?

We’ve got very little in terms of news to discuss until the next head coach is announced in the coming days, so let’s focus on the players on the ice. Or in this case, the players could very well not be on the Madison Square Garden ice next year if the Rangers cannot figure out a way to make the money available to sign Alexis Lafreniere long-term when his contract expires on July 1st and he becomes a restricted free agent.

If you are new to hockey and don’t know why being a restricted free agent is a bad thing, or you just don’t like to pay attention in the summer, this opens the Rangers up to a potential offer sheet on one of their restricted free agents. This is when a different team signs the player, but the Rangers get 7 days to match. If a team did this to both K’Andre Miller and Alexis Lafreniere, the Rangers are unlikely to be able to match both offers.

There is compensation for the players in the form of picks, but the picks you’d get for either player would be late and not worth it. The last successful offer sheet in the NHL was done by the Carolina Hurricanes when they pried Jesperi Kotkaniemi away from the Montreal Canadiens, but it burned a lot of bridges when he left Quebec. If the Rangers want to avoid that fate they need to remove the threat of an offer sheet. One way to do that? Trade Lafreniere.

I am not saying moving Lafreniere is a good idea or even what I would like to see the Rangers do, but your player will not sign an offer sheet if they are not your player. It’s not an ideal fit because long-term, any move of the Quebecois winger will likely bite the Rangers in the rear end because of the pure talent he possesses, but the team may not have a choice at the end of the day.

Montreal Canadiens

Montreal is going to come up a lot when trade rumors regarding Alexis Lafreniere surface. It’s no secret that the Canadiens love to ice Quebecois players and have people in the organization that can address the media in the native French spoken in the Canadian province. Lafreniere being a French-speaking winger is going to be drooled over by Habs media around the hockey world in English and French.

Montreal is one of those cities where it does not matter what the Rangers say about Lafreniere, they will want to push the narrative of a French Canadian coming back to eastern Canada because the fans like it. However, the Canadiens do actually have a few pieces that may interest the Rangers enough to part with their former first-overall pick. Mainly because they have one of their own.

Juraj Slafkovsky is a great prospect, but he went first overall and really should not have. That was the Shane Wright draft where Wright was the obvious pick and the Canadiens didn’t feel like taking Wright, New Jersey had made a commitment to Simon Nemec, and Arizona had made promises to Logan Cooley so Wright fell to Seattle. But this shouldn’t take away from what Slafkovsky is.

While the young Slovakian only had 4 goals and 6 assists in 39 games this season, he’s got the ability to be a strong player in this league. The Rangers get an additional pick in the deep 2023 draft, even though it is currently looking like it is going to be 32nd overall with the way the Florida Panthers keep ripping through teams. It’s unlikely something like this happens, but a deal like this isn’t beyond the bounds.

There is another alternative to a deal for Lafreniere to Montreal, and that would have to be based on a more forward-thinking approach on a bigger scale. If the Rangers were going to move Lafreniere, I think this second idea is a lot fairer in comparison to the first one because this is a team that has not hidden its intentions to try to win now. At least not particularly well.

Cole Caufield is a winger that needs a contract himself, but due to him not playing enough professional games, he’s not eligible for an offer sheet, making him an ideal fit for a team like the Rangers that may need to push the can down the road before extending him. At an incredibly young age too, Caufield would add some serious scoring to this lineup. This is the kind of idea I think the Rangers would want in a Lafreniere deal.

Los Angeles Kings

This is probably my favorite idea of the three, and there is a reason for it. The Los Angeles Kings are in such a great position in order to help their players succeed, as we’ve seen with the younger kids coming through the LA system. It feels like this is a team that would have a solidified interest in the player Alexis Lafreniere was to become available this summer to protect from the threat of an offer sheet.

For Lafreniere, he’d get to live in the 2nd best city in the country after living in the best. He’s not exactly going to see a major decline in his lifestyle. Moving out west would get him out of the pressure of this major market and perhaps allow him more time to become everything that was expected of him when he came out of the QMJHL as one of the best prospects we’d ever seen.

Byfield was the 2nd overall pick in the same draft as Lafreniere. He’s struggled with injuries which have taken away some of the crucial development time and he’s unlikely to reach the expectations placed on him as a 2nd overall pick, but to say that he is a bad prospect is beyond a bad take. He’s starting to break into the NHL, and the fact he isn’t an NHL regular is what allows the Rangers to ask for this kind of package.

Jordan Spence is an Australian-born defenseman who has a heritage in both Canada and Japan, making him a player that would have an international following. He’s also not a bad prospect and as a right-shot defenseman, he could be important in a few years when the captain’s contract is up and there is a gigantic hole to fill in the defensive core because the Rangers’ right side is a little thin for the future currently.

While the pick won’t be where they got Lafreniere, it would be another asset the Rangers could flip to get players in exchange to load up for a deep run or to continue to fill out the prospect pool at the draft table and build the organization up for the future given the current issues with it. Cheap, young players that have come through the system are the best way to replenish the depth you lose in free agency after all.