Three Trade Destinations for New York Rangers Forward Alexis Lafreniere

Vancouver Canucks

Vancouver is another Canadian market that has pushed hard in the narrative to try and acquire Alexis Lafreniere. That is because their AGM Emilie Castonguay used to be the agent of Alexis Lafreniere before she joined the front office of the Canucks organization. Vancouver wants promising young players but has negative cap space at this moment in time so this would have to be a cash-in, cash-out type of deal.

For the Rangers, they don’t exactly have the money to take major pieces from another team without moving out significant funds of their own. With just $11 million in cap space, this management still has to fill out two defensive slots, a backup netminder, and some of the bottom six. This makes it almost impossible for the Rangers to take on a big-salary player in exchange for the promising young winger.

Vancouver gets a winger that still has the talent to become a game-breaker. They get a former 1st overall pick and a former 1st overall pick that the Rangers cannot afford to bring back. It makes some sense that the Canucks would have to lose two of the most promising pieces in their organization for him, and Canuck fans are going to hate this, but who cares?

This works for the Rangers because they get two great young offensive talents, one of who is already in the NHL. This gives the Rangers the cap space to kick the can down the road and wait until the significant cap increase next season. It’s a move I actually really like for both teams because Vancouver buys low on Lafreniere and the Rangers get long-term forward help and depth.