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Alexis Lafreniere

Snapshots: Lightning, Morin, Lafreniere

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It’s well-known that Tampa Bay has to clear up some cap space and Wednesday’s re-signing of Mikhail Sergachev only further cemented that as it put them over the $81.5MM Upper Limit with two restricted free agents (center Anthony Cirelli and defenseman Erik Cernak) still to sign.  Speaking with reporters, including Joe Smith of The Athletic (subscription link), GM Julien BriseBois indicated that some progress has been made in trying to accomplish that:

There’s a lot of progress being made. We’re working on a bunch of different fronts, there’s a lot of balls up in the air. Nothing has materialized yet.

Even if Cirelli and Cernak take short-term contracts to keep the AAV down (which is the likeliest scenario at this point), it’s doubtful that moving out one player will be enough to get them back into compliance.  Tyler Johnson is known to be available but he passed through waivers unclaimed earlier this offseason.  With few teams having the ability to take on pricey contracts, BriseBois and the Lightning still have a lot of work to do.

Elsewhere around the league:

  • Flyers defenseman Samuel Morin has fully recovered from his second ACL surgery, notes Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The 25-year-old has been limited to just 11 games combined over the past two seasons with Philadelphia and AHL Lehigh Valley and as a result, head coach Alain Vigneault believes that Morin will have to at least start next season with the Phantoms (assuming he clears waivers).  He’s entering the final year of his contract and will have a lot of work to do to prove himself worth of a qualifying offer next offseason.
  • Despite Canada’s World Junior team having to shut things down for two weeks for quarantining purposes, they haven’t ruled out the possibility of Rangers winger Alexis Lafreniere joining them, Hockey Canada’s Scott Salmond told reporters, including TSN’s Mark Masters (Twitter link). Discussions remain ongoing with New York about the top pick being made available.  At this point, the uncertain status of the start of next season is likely holding things up but if it’s pushed back in the near future, it would become more palatable for Lafreniere to be made available.

New York Rangers Sign Alexis Lafreniere

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Sometimes it’s easy to forget that the first-overall pick doesn’t immediately join an organization when he is selected, but still needs to negotiate a contract. That wasn’t a problem in this case, as Alexis Lafreniere has inked his entry-level deal with the New York Rangers just a few days after being picked.

CapFriendly reports that the deal, like other contracts signed by first-overall picks, will be set at the entry-level max. It includes a base salary of $832.5K, $92,500 signing bonus, $850K in Schedule ’A’ performance bonuses and $2MM in Schedule ’B’ performance bonuses in all three years.

Those ’B’ bonuses are difficult to reach and include things like finishing in the top ten for NHL goals, assists, points or points-per-game, winning major awards like the Hart or Selke trophies, or making the NHL first or second All-Star teams at year’s end. The ’A’ bonuses are much easier milestones to reach and include things like scoring 20 goals, 60 points or finishing in the top six in team ice time.

Technically Lafreniere’s contract could slide forward like any other prospect, but the young forward will play this season with the Rangers and thus burn the first year of the deal. If all goes well, he will be a restricted free agent in 2023.

New York Rangers Select Alexis Lafreniere First Overall

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The New York Rangers have added another franchise talent. After selecting Kaapo Kakko with the second pick in 2019, the Rangers lucked into another lottery win this year and the right to select any draft-eligible player they want. Though names like Quinton Byfield or Tim Stuetzle may have been tempting in any other year, the team had no choice but to select the consensus top prospect Alexis Lafreniere.

There is almost nothing that Lafreniere can’t do on an ice rink. Growing up just outside of Montreal, it didn’t take long for prospect watchers to recognize that he may be one of the next great talents to come out of the province of Quebec.

When it came time for the 2017 QMJHL Entry Draft, there was little doubt who would be off the board first. The Rimouski Oceanic, the same junior program that had produced Sidney Crosby more than ten years earlier, selected Lafreniere ahead of Samuel Poulin and Jakob Pelletier, both players who ended up going in the first round of the 2019 NHL draft. Lafreniere was different though, and it wouldn’t take him long to show it.

Because of his late birthday—October 11th—Lafreniere would actually make his debut for Rimouski at age-15. He recorded 11 shots on goal over his first three games but would come away with just a single assist and four penalty minutes. It wasn’t until October 1st, ten days before his 16th birthday, when he would score his first two QMJHL goals. In the games that followed, he would add 40 to that total and lead the Rimouski in both goals and points despite being several years younger than his teammates. A CHL Rookie of the Year award awaited him following the 2017-18 season, along with plenty of other individual accolades.

They wouldn’t end there.

In each of the next two seasons, Lafreniere would not only lead his team in scoring, but dominate the competition on a nightly basis. In 113 regular season games he scored 217 points, winning CHL Player of the Year in each season despite leaving his team both years to compete in the World Juniors for Canada, the youngest player since Connor McDavid to make that prestigious roster.

At the most recent tournament, he showed everyone why he would be picked first by the Rangers ten months later. With Canada down 3-0 at the hands of Team Russia, a tournament powerhouse, Lafreniere would drive the net to try and get his team back into the game. His left knee would be trapped underneath his body as he attempted a backhand shot. The arena was silent as the consensus top prospect writhed in pain on the ice. Canada would lose that game 6-0 and looked like they had also lost their best player.

Fears of surgery and the end of his season raced through the thoughts of hockey fans all over the world, but an MRI after the game would report no structural damage. Lafreniere would return later in the tournament, just in time to lift the Canadians to a gold medal victory over that same Russian team. He would end up playing nearly 24 minutes for Canada in the gold medal matchup, recording an assist on two goals including the Barrett Hayton mark that tied it with just under nine minutes remaining.

Lafreniere had been the expected 2020 first-overall pick for years, but at that tournament, he sealed it. He’ll now join a young, dynamic Rangers team that already has a Hart Trophy candidate in Artemi Panarin and enough talent to really compete in the years to come.

A powerful skater, a brilliant playmaker and armed with a competitive drive that rivals anyone in the NHL. Lafreniere doesn’t shy away from contact like some outstanding offensive talents, in fact, he seeks it out all over the ice and improves his play in the biggest moments. Can he dominate for the Rangers as quickly as he has at every other level? We’ll have to wait to find out.

Snapshots: First Overall, Fleury, Season Start

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The New York Rangers have received “plenty” of calls on the first-overall pick before tonight’s draft according to Frank Seravalli of TSN, but continue to rebuff those interested. Seravalli reports that Rangers even received an offer from the Los Angeles Kings to swap top picks (the Kings hold the second-overall selection) but have “zero intention” of moving off number one.

That would certainly suggest that the Rangers agree with the rest of the world and will select Alexis Lafreniere first this evening. While Quinton Byfield and Tim Stuetzle are supremely talented players that will make their respective franchises very happy, there’s just no comparison to the potential that Lafreniere brings as a do-it-all superstar. The 18-year-old winger has won the CHL Player of the Year award in each of the last two seasons and showed the world what kind of a competitor he was at the World Juniors, physically dominating his opponents and returning from a knee injury to help Canada win a gold medal (and take home the tournament MVP honors).

  •  The Vegas Golden Knights are trying hard to move Marc-Andre Fleury, as Seravalli reports on TSN’s Insider Trading that they are trying to encourage teams to act as a “broker” and take on some of Fleury’s cap hit in a three-team deal. The Toronto Maple Leafs did something similar for Vegas this season when they assumed part of Robin Lehner’s salary in exchange for a fifth-round pick, but the Golden Knights are offering an even bigger prize to teams willing to help them facilitate a Fleury trade. Seravalli reports that Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon has offered a second-round pick to that broker team, but so far that hasn’t been enough to eat the $3.5MM that the Golden Knights are hoping for. Instead, teams like the Carolina Hurricanes who have been involved could be asking for as much as a first- and second-round pick in order to take on that much salary over the final two seasons of Fleury’s deal.
  • While the hockey world goes crazy over this week of draft and free agent frenzy, remember that the 2020-21 season is not going to start for quite some time. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet confirmed today what many have speculated on, that the league is now looking at January 1, 2021 as a potential start date for next season. Previously, the league had listed December 1 as the target, but that always seemed optimistic.

Draft Notes: Perfetti, Sanderson, Rossi

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Several of the top-rated prospects for the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, coming up on October 6-7, spoke to the media today and there was no shortage of interesting quotes, courtesy of OHL insider Mark Scheig. Saginaw forward Cole Perfetti was certainly confident and didn’t mince his words when discussing his ideal NHL landing spot. “If I was under a head coach where I had to dump the puck in every time I go out over the red line and get on the forecheck, it would be frustrating and I wouldn’t be able to express how I really am as a player,” Perfetti stated. While many NHL teams have abandoned the dump-and-chase offense, it might not have been the best idea for the young forward to state so emphatically that he could have issues in a system different from the one he is used to. NHL GM’s probably would have preferred to hear him say that he is willing to work at fitting in to any offensive structure and that his ability can adapt to new systems. Although Perfetti’s talent will be the final determinant of his draft slot, he may have rubbed some interested executives the wrong way with his bold statement. We will find out for sure come draft day if the potential top-five pick falls down the draft board.

  • Defenseman Jake Sanderson has flown up draft boards since the start of this season to the point that he is now considered a consensus top-10 or at least top-15 pick. That of course means that the U.S. National Team Development Program product has slipped past the realm of possibility for the Columbus Blue Jackets at No. 21 overall. Jake’s father, Geoff Sanderson, was an inaugural member of the Blue Jackets and played four seasons with the team, during which time Jake was born. Sanderson told the media today that he has indeed met with  Columbus and there is a lot of familiarity still with the organization and the city. To make this pairing a reality, the Blue Jackets would absolutely need to trade up in the first round. However, they will likely wait until the draft has begun to see if such a move is even worth it. Sanderson revealed that he has also met with the New Jersey Devils twice and the cost for Columbus to move ahead of them at No. 7 is likely too high. If he does slip by the Devils, the race could be on for Columbus to move up the draft board.
  • Have the Detroit Red Wings tipped their hand as to their selection at No. 4 overall? With Alexis Lafreniere locked in as the No. 1 pick to the New York Rangers and Quinton Byfield and Tim Stutzle going in some order at No. 2 and No. 3, the first real draft order question comes with Detroit’s pick. However, it seems like the mystery may have already been solved. Amidst existing rumors that the Red Wings had keyed in on OHL forward Marco Rossi as their selection, the Red Wings loaned one of their top prospects, Michael Rasmussen, to the Graz 99ers, the same team that Rossi is currently training with. Then today, Rossi reported that he has talked with the Red Wings not once or twice but three times. And while other prospects have noted that Detroit GM Steve Yzerman has merely been listening in on video calls with his computer screen off, Rossi stated that he has had several “good” chats directly with Yzerman. This is far from an absolute confirmation that the Red Wings will go Rossi at fourth overall, there is certainly enough evidence to make a strong case.

West Notes: Kings, DeMelo, Pospisil

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The New York Rangers were the big winners at the NHL Draft Lottery, meaning the Westen Conference won’t have to deal with Alexis Lafreniere on a regular basis, right? Well, as Lisa Dillman examined for The Athletic, if the Los Angeles Kings or another team with a high pick came calling the Rangers would have to listen. The Kings have arguably the best prospect group in the entire NHL already and could potentially create quite a package of assets for the first overall selection.

While the Kings have that impressive prospect base and several high picks, the Ottawa Senators are primed to make a huge splash at this year’s draft as well. Not only do they hold the third and fifth overall selections, but they also have an incredible seven picks in the first two rounds of this year’s draft. Nine if you extend that to the third round, and 13 in total for 2020.

  • Winnipeg Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff liked the fit for trade deadline acquisition Dylan DeMelo, but hasn’t started negotiations yet for a new contract according to Murat Ates of The Athletic. The team will “definitely take a look” at a new deal with the pending free agent, who ended up playing just 14 total games for the Jets after arriving from Ottawa partway through the season. The 27-year old DeMelo recorded just ten points in 59 games this season and is coming off a two-year deal that carried a $900K cap hit.
  • Martin Pospisil, who signed his three-year entry-level contract in 2019, will be playing in Slovakia for the time being. The Calgary Flames prospect has been loaned to HC Kosice for the next few months but is expected back for NHL training camp. Pospisil played 26 games for the Stockton Heat of the AHL this season, recording ten points.

Alexis Lafreniere Will Not Report To QMJHL, Will Not Play In Europe

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Alexis Lafreniere is confident he’ll be playing in New York next season. According to Bob McKenzie of TSN, the consensus first-overall pick has decided that he will not report to training camp for the Rimouski Oceanic of the QMJHL or go overseas to play in Europe for the next few months. Instead, he intends on training individually and preparing for the NHL season.

The 18-year old Lafreniere was always expected to go straight to the NHL after his draft, but the uncertainty of when that 2020-21 season actually will begin created some confusion at how he would handle things. McKenzie did note that if the NHL season doesn’t begin in December or January as expected, he will then review his options.

It is interesting to note that the IIHF is still hoping to hold the 2021 World Junior Championship, scheduled to begin on December 26th in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta. If the NHL season still hasn’t begun by then, perhaps Lafreniere—who will still only be 19 and eligible—could represent Canada one last time at the tournament. He was named MVP of the event this year, scoring 10 points and leading Canada to a gold medal.

In any case, you won’t be seeing Lafreniere in Rimouski this fall as he ends his CHL career with two consecutive Player of the Year awards.

New York Rangers Win The First-Overall Pick

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Phase two of the NHL Draft Lottery took place this evening, and the New York Rangers were the big winners. The first-overall pick and the right to draft Alexis Lafreniere was on the line after the first part of the lottery ended up in a “TBA” team winning, which then went to one of the eliminated qualification round teams. Lafreniere, the consensus top prospect in this year’s field, will get a chance to join Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad on October 9th when the draft is held virtually and is expected to make an impact in the 2020-21 season.

The rest of the qualification losers will be dropped in based on regular season points percentage. That means the top-15 selections will look like this:

  1. New York Rangers
  2. Los Angeles Kings
  3. Ottawa Senators (via San Jose Sharks)
  4. Detroit Red Wings
  5. Ottawa Senators
  6. Anaheim Ducks
  7. New Jersey Devils
  8. Buffalo Sabres
  9. Minnesota Wild
  10. Winnipeg Jets
  11. Nashville Predators
  12. Florida Panthers
  13. Carolina Hurricanes (via Toronto Maple Leafs)
  14. Edmonton Oilers
  15. Pittsburgh Penguins

Lafreniere is quite the prize for the Rangers. The 18-year old forward is coming off his second consecutive CHL Player of the Year award after dominating for the Rimouski Oceanic of the QMJHL. In 173 regular season games across three years for the club, Lafreniere recorded 297 points to go along with Hlinka-Gretzky and World Junior gold medals. There is very little he can’t do offensively, and he’ll get to join what is turning into a loaded forward group in New York. Remember, the Rangers won the second-overall pick in last year’s lottery and ended up selecting Kaapo Kakko, another extremely talented winger (who admittedly didn’t have an excellent rookie season).

Another change from the lottery includes the Hurricanes picking up a top-15 pick of their own. The Maple Leafs had sent them that pick to get Carolina to buyout Patrick Marleau, but it was lottery protected and would have stayed with Toronto had they won tonight. The Hurricanes will actually give up their own pick to the Rangers as part of the Brady Skjei deal, but still have a chance of picking a top prospect.

Undoubtedly though, the Rangers front office will come out of tonight with huge smiles on their faces. Though they didn’t get the chance to advance in the playoffs, their time is coming as a contender in the Eastern Conference.

Poll: Who Do You Want To Win The Draft Lottery?

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Seven teams in the NHL didn’t get a chance to return to play this summer. Their regular seasons were so disastrous that they didn’t qualify for a tournament which saw 24-teams take part. But none of them will be rewarded with the first-overall pick in 2020. Instead, that selection will go to one of the eight teams eliminated over the past week, after the first part of the draft lottery ended with a TBA club taking home the top spot.

The qualification round provided some incredible storylines. It also provided some eye-popping upsets. Both the Chicago Blackhawks and Montreal Canadiens, respective 12-seeds going into the return to play format, defeated Stanley Cup contenders with all-world talents leading the way. Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and their teams are out before even seeing the first round but now have a chance to land a consolation prize of sorts.

The Edmonton Oilers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Nashville Predators, New York Rangers, Florida Panthers, Winnipeg Jets, and Minnesota Wild all have a 12.5% chance of being awarded that first-overall pick, and the chance to select two-time CHL Player of the Year Alexis Lafreniere.

That may seem ridiculous, given the regular season performances from those clubs, but remember it required a previous lottery to get to this point. There was only a 24.5% chance of a qualification-round team earning the pick in the first place. That ended up happening, with the Los Angeles Kings also moving up to second place. The Detroit Red Wings, who had the highest chance of winning any of the three lottery spots ended up the big losers of the event, dropping all the way down to fourth despite winning just 17 games this season.

The league will announce the lottery winner this evening, with hockey fans all over the world tuning in to see where Lafreniere will go. The format of the lottery has drawn massive criticism given how things played out, but that won’t stop it from being a must-see event for the entire NHL.

Where do you want to see the phenom go? Which of the eliminated teams deserves the pick? Which would you hate to see win? Cast your vote below and make sure to explain your choice in the comments!

[Mobile users click here to vote]

Florida Panthers Part Ways With GM Dale Tallon

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Aug 10: The Panthers have officially parted ways with Tallon, announcing that a search for their next GM has begun. In a short statement, owner Vinnie Viola explained what Tallon has meant for the club and why they were now moving on:

For the last decade, Dale raised the team’s profile, attracted key players to South Florida and brought character and class to our franchise. When we purchased the Panthers in 2013, we did so with a singular goal–to win a Stanley Cup. We have not seen our efforts come to fruition. We will now begin an organizational search for the next general manager.

Aug 7: The Florida Panthers were very unlikely to have made the playoffs this season under the standard format and few gave them a chance of an upset over the stout defense of the New York Islanders in the qualifying round. Yet, the organization is still not taking their elimination earlier today lightly. Fox Sports’ Andy Strickland reports that the hammer is set to drop on long-time executive Dale Tallon. The team is expected to move on from their GM shortly.

Tallon, hired as GM in Florida in 2010, had previously served in the same role with the Chicago Blackhawks and had a hand in the team’s Stanley Cup win the season prior to his departure. Tallon served as GM for the Panthers until 2016, when he was elevated to President of Hockey Operations. He then resumed GM duties as well in 2018. Having been around for a decade, Tallon’s influence can be found in every corner of the roster, even in long-time homegrown stars Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, and Aaron Ekblad, who were all drafted by Tallon.

However, Tallon’s mistakes have also made a lasting impression on the roster. This past off-season in particular, Tallon gambled with the Panthers’ salary cap space, spending big on goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, forward Brett Connolly, and defenseman Anton Stralman. It is hard to argue that any of the three have lived up to expectations in yet another disappointing season for the franchise, which has not won a playoff series since 1996. Yet, they are all multi-year deals and will continue to impact the team for seasons still to come. With little cap space heading into this off-season, top scorers like Mike Hoffman and Evgenii Dadonov could prove difficult to re-sign and the club could take another step backward next season. Other lasting mistakes have included a botched Expansion Draft strategy that saw the team give away Reilly Smith in order to ensure Jonathan Marchessault was selected by the Vegas Golden Knights, only to see both become reliable top-six forwards, not getting enough for forward Vincent Trocheck from the Carolina Hurricanes at the trade deadline this year, and simply flip-flopping on their organizational strategy too frequently.

In finding Tallon’s replacement, the Panthers need to find someone with a long-term outlook on the position and a concrete plan on how they will rebuild the club. Having made just three playoff appearances in the past ten years, Florida fans will likely be happy to miss the postseason for another year or two if it means sustained success down the road. That could start with some lottery luck in the form of the No. 1 overall pick and Alexis Lafreniere. Maximizing their four picks in the first three rounds one way or another will also be imperative for the new GM in his first draft. Finding a way to shed some dead weight salary and to add much-needed depth at all positions will also be key.

Not all of Tallon’s tenure in Florida has been bad – including the aforementioned homegrown standouts and a pair of division titles – but at the end of the day the Panthers have had no postseason success and they have their work cut out for them to change that any time soon. Tallon’s replacement will have plenty of work to do to undo some of the GM’s mistakes and to reverse the curse on the Florida franchise.

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