Early into the 2025-26 season, the New York Rangers' main storyline has been their offensive woes. They're averaging two goals per game, the second-worst in the NHL. Only the Flames are worse offensively. One reason for these struggles has been the play of Alexis Lafrenière. After notching two points, including the first goal of the season against Buffalo, Lafrenière hasn't recorded a point.
This slow start has caused many questions and concerns surrounding Lafrenière to resurface. Coming into the year, the hope was that Lafrenière would look more like the player he was in 2023-24. This would get him closer to the player the Rangers thought they were getting when they drafted him first overall in 2020. However, given this slow start and how he played last season, the question is: Will Lafrenière ever be a legitimate top-six winger?
Can the Rangers rely on Alexis Lafrenière anymore?
It was seen as a steal when Lafrenière signed his seven-year extension in November 2024. He was off to a hot start after a breakout 2023-24 season that saw him register a career-high 57 points. In the first nine games of 2024-25, he tallied four goals and four assists for eight points. It had seemed Lafrenière had finally adjusted to the NHL game and was about to become a 60-70-point player. The type of player the Rangers could build their top six around.
However, he has been invisible on the ice since signing that extension. In the remaining 73 games of 2024-25, he only scored 13 goals and 24 assists for 37 points. These numbers would be concerning on their own, but what makes them worse is that they're right in line with his career averages. This indicates that his 2024-25 season was more of an outlier instead of him having a breakout season.
One of the reasons people point to for why Lafrenière was playing alongside Artemi Panarin. With how prolific a point producer Panarin is, some thought Lafrenière's breakout was nothing more than a byproduct of Panarin's production. His performance over the last two seasons is only further evidence of this. Last year, Panarin had a down season, failing to break 90 points for the first time since the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season. With Panarin struggling, we saw Lafrenière return to his previous struggles.
This season, the two are not even on the same line. Sure, the first few games saw them play together, but since the Vincent Trocheck injury, Laf has spent most of his time with Mika Zibanejad and Conor Sheary. Regardless of who is on his line, Lafrenière has yet to show any signs of life in a year. This is bad news for the Rangers because part of the team's success hinged on Lafrenière taking the next step and becoming a more consistent scorer.
But if everything we've seen is any indication, it's hard to imagine Lafrenière ever being someone the Rangers can rely on. It's becoming harder to see him giving the Rangers anything but the occasional score. It's an ominous sign for the Rangers and the future of Lafrenère career.