The New York Rangers' rollercoaster season continued on Monday night. Seemingly bringing the fight to the Carolina Hurricanes, they blew a 2-1 lead, resulting in a 3-2 loss in overtime to their division rivals. It was another missed opportunity for a team that just can't seem to find consistency. It certainly doesn't help that the scoring just isn't there for the team.
Despite the struggles, the Rangers are still in the thick of the playoff race in the Eastern Conference. It truly goes to show just how wide open the playoff hunt is. This Rangers team need a spark to truly be playoff contenders, but it appears that an answer to their scoring woes just isn't there. with that, they'll have to rely on their current roster to try and breakthrough.
The Athletic's Vince Mercogliano and Peter Baugh unveiled their midseason report card for the Rangers after reaching the 41-game mark (subscription required). For the "most disappointing" player category, Baugh selected former No. 1 overall pick Alexis Lafreniere for the award.
The Athletic names Alexis Lafreniere most disappointing Rangers player of 2025-26 season
"When the Rangers signed Lafrenière to a seven-year extension Oct. 25, 2024, he was coming off a career-best 57-point season and had four goals and seven points in seven games to start 2024-25. Perhaps he wasn’t going to live up to his billing as a No. 1 draft pick, but he seemed to be settling in as a strong top-six player," writes Baugh.
"Since then, Lafrenière has 58 points in 116 games entering Monday. He has eight goals and 20 points this year, even though he’s on pace for a career high in power-play ice time. With the Rangers’ depleted scoring depth and lack of young, high-skill forwards, they need him to be at least on par with his 2023-24 version. That year, though, is looking more like an anomaly than an expectation: a concerning development for New York."
In the lead-up to the 2020 NHL Draft Lottery, Lafreniere was the top prospect of the class and viewed as the top Canadian prospect since Connor McDavid five years prior. The Rangers, who just missed out on playoff qualification in the league's bubble located in Toronto during the COVID-19 pandemic, won the lottery and the No. 1 pick. The team, unsurprisingly, took Lafreniere.
For the Rangers, they already had a crowded, win-now roster. But the expectation was that Lafreniere would be a solid contributor. As a rookie, Lafreniere notched just 12 goals and nine assists through 56 games. In 2021-22, Lafreniere scored 19 goals and recorded 12 assists in 79 games. Then, in his third season in 2022-23, he posted 16 goals and 23 assists in 81 games. Not the best numbers for a player who was deemed to be a really good, all-around player as the No. 1 draft pick.
But then, the 2023-24 season arrived. Lafreniere looked like the prospect everyone expected him to be. Credit can be given to him being lined up alongside Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck to form the Rangers' most productive line (before breaking it up). Through 82 games, Lafreniere recorded 28 goals and 29 assists, both of which were season-highs. The Rangers rewarded Lafreniere with a seven-year, $52.15 million contract extension. It felt like a no-brainer of a signing, especially if they finally cracked the code on how to get the most production possible out of him.
Unfortunately, as Baugh brings up, Lafreniere's production never got close to his 2023-24 season levels. In the 116 games he's played in since signing the contract extension, Lafreniere has just 58 points to his credit. That's not ideal.
This season, Lafreniere has eight goals and 12 assists to his credit through 41 games. This isn't good production for the former first-overall pick, especially with the Rangers desperately needing someone on the roster to break through and solve their scoring problems. Let's face it, the realistic, external options on the trade block aren't the greatest.
For Rangers fans who have followed Lafreniere's journey since being drafted in 2020, him being named the most disappointing player of the season is far from shocking. The team needs him, and he simply is not helping them.