{"id":138668,"date":"2023-08-23T16:56:57","date_gmt":"2023-08-23T20:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=138668"},"modified":"2023-08-23T16:56:57","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T20:56:57","slug":"a-new-deal-for-new-york-rangers-rfa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/08\/23\/a-new-deal-for-new-york-rangers-rfa\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Deal For New York Rangers RFA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re<\/a> and the New York Rangers have reached an agreement, on a new contract keeping the former first-overall pick in town a bit longer. He is locked in for two years and has an AAV of $2.3 million per season.<\/p>\n

Lafreni\u00e8re Gets New Contract<\/h2>\n

This Alexis Lafreniere contract is good for both sides. Selected first overall<\/a> in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, Lafreni\u00e8re jumped straight to the big leagues with the Rangers. The skilled winger has been a bit disappointing in his production, but other parts of his game have come along.<\/p>\n

Whether that will appease fans – and management – is another question. He’s entering his fourth professional season, and despite finding some connection with fellow youngsters Filip Chytil<\/a> and Kaapo Kakko<\/a>, they want goals.<\/p>\n

Those three were far and away the Rangers’ most consistent line, playing over 500 minutes together in 2022-23. They are going to get every chance to take second-line duties this year – and for good reason.<\/p>\n

Lafreni\u00e8re is coming off his best year, both in points – 16 goals and 39 points in 81 games – and defensively. It was the first year his Corsi rating was above 50% at even strength. He’s getting some looks on the power play, but mostly he does his damage at evens.<\/p>\n

What This Means<\/h3>\n

Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re is ready for the next step, even if it didn’t come as quickly as he wanted. There is a lot of talent among the Rangers forwards, so the only pressure he should feel is coming from him.<\/p>\n

He won’t be happy with a mere 15 minutes per game, and it’ll show. Lafreni\u00e8re, along with his linemates, will be pushing to assume a leadership role to suit his new deal.<\/p>\n

If he needs an additional goad, the memory of being held to zero points in seven playoff games should do that. Decent play is acceptable in a player on his first contract, wherever they are drafted. In his fourth year, though, he’ll need to step up when it matters most.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re and the New York Rangers have reached an agreement, on a new contract keeping the former first-overall pick in town a bit longer. He is locked in for two years and has an AAV of $2.3 million per season. Lafreni\u00e8re Gets New Contract This Alexis Lafreniere contract is good for both sides. Selected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3171,"featured_media":138689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,4547,4548],"tags":[4410,1654,3508],"class_list":["post-138668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rangers","category-hockey","category-nhl","tag-alexis-lafreniere","tag-filip-chytil","tag-kaapo-kakko"],"modified_by":"Tommy Bennett","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}