Exactly one year ago, Alexis Lafrenière was riding high.
Following a career-best 57-point season, the New York Rangers winger ripped off a five-game point streak to begin the 2024-25 campaign. He had just turned 23 and would soon sign a life-changing, seven-year contract totaling $52.15 million. But the NHL has a way of humbling those who think they have it all figured out.
The Rangers began to crash and burn in late November, with Lafrenière as one of several leading culprits. From Nov. 25 through the end of the season, a very sizable sample size of 63 games, he only mustered 29 points and finished with 45.
“Last year wasn’t great, obviously,” he said at the end of training camp. “We all know that.”
It wasn’t strictly about a slippage in points production, either.
Lafrenière has never been considered a strong defensive forward, but his offensive struggles seemed to have a carryover effect. On a few glaring occasions, his spotty coverage and lackadaisical backchecks drew ire from fans. At the time, he stressed the need to shorten his shifts and ensure he wasn’t caught with a low gas tank when possession flipped to the opposition. But it’s hard not to think that the frustrating slump seeped into all aspects of his game.
“A little bit of everything,” Lafrenière said when asked if he could pinpoint what went wrong. “Production, consistency —it just didn’t go well, and that’s on you as a player to fix it and try to find ways to be better. I had a lot of time this summer to work on my game.”
The 6-foot-2, 191-pounder returned to his usual offseason gym, Centre Performe Plus in Boisbriand, Quebec, where he trains with NHLers such as Jonathan Huberdeau, Anthony Mantha and brothers Mathieu and Pierre-Olivier Joseph. But because the Rangers missed the playoffs, he had more time there than in any previous summer.
“I just tried to kind of reset, take some time off, and get right back to work,” said Lafrenière, who turned 24 on Saturday. “Obviously, there’s motivation this year. We’ve got to have a bounce-back year as a team, and me personally, too.”
At the risk of stating the obvious, the Rangers could really use it.
In the last 10-plus months, New York has traded away forwards Filip Chytil, Kaapo Kakko and Chris Kreider, among others, with new captain J.T. Miller the only top-six piece acquired in return. He, Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck and Mika Zibanejad are being asked to carry the offensive burden up front, but they’ll buckle under that weight if quality help doesn’t emerge. Trocheck’s recent upper-body injury reinforces that point even further.
Lafrenière and fellow 2020 draftee Will Cuylle must fortify the top six — and if they fail to do so, the five-on-five issues that festered last season could get even worse.
“His skill set is through the roof,” Trocheck said of Lafrenière last week. “It seems like he worked really hard this summer. He’s in shape. He’s playing fast. It’s just a matter for him of finding the right times to make your moves and knowing when it’s time to live to fight another day. I think he just needs to keep it simple and have confidence in himself. He’s very talented, so I’ve got a lot of high hopes for him.”
It’s been far from perfect through the first four games under coach Mike Sullivan, two of which resulted in shutout losses on home ice, but there have been encouraging signs, particularly on the Rangers’ first road trip. It was Lafrenière who notched the team’s first goal of the season in Thursday’s 4-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres by doing exactly what the new coaching staff has been preaching: getting to the high-danger areas.
“We’re trying to get him to play a little bit more of a north-south game,” Sullivan said prior to Saturday’s 6-1 win in Pittsburgh against the Penguins. “We’re trying to get him to hang onto pucks in the offensive zone. We’re trying to get him to get inside the dots and get to the interior of the rink. If you’re going to score goals in this league, my experience has been, you’ve got to be willing to go to the interior of the rink to score a fair amount of them. Laf will get the odd goal ripping a shot from outside the dots, but he’s not going to score 30-plus (from there).
“The goal he scored in Buffalo is a perfect example,” Sullivan added. “It’s a blue-paint goal, as we would call it. And he’s capable of that because he’s big and strong and he’s got great stick skills.”
Lafrenière benefited from getting in tight on Sabres goalie Alex Lyon, positioning himself to pounce on a Panarin rebound and break the team’s 71:43 scoring drought. It was one of five individual high-danger scoring chances he’s been credited with this season, which is tied for third on the Rangers, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Laffy cleans it up. 🧹 pic.twitter.com/IOyYEBmgcE
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) October 9, 2025
Two of those came Thursday in Buffalo, a game in which Lafrenière looked engaged and active throughout. He added his first assist of the season on Miller’s goal late in the third period, which he earned through effort and puck pursuit.
After making the pass that sent the Rangers on the attack, Lafrenière then raced the full length of the ice and won a puck battle in the corner against two Sabres. He then found Braden Schneider near the blue line, who whipped a shot that Miller tipped for the game-sealing tally.
(Shayna Goldman / The Athletic)
He carried that momentum into Saturday, registering no points but still serving as a key component on New York’s best line with Panarin and Zibanejad. That trio generated an 80.75 percent expected goals-for rate while producing three high-danger chances without allowing any.
The chance to play with Panarin, in particular, is something the Rangers believe can unlock Lafrenière’s potential. Along with Trocheck, they formed the NHL’s highest-scoring line in 2023-24, amassing 54 goals and allowing 39 across 863-plus minutes together, according to MoneyPuck.com. The trio began 2024-25 intact, but were separated once New York began to fade and bounced around for much of the season.
Sullivan got the band back together in training camp, and even though Trocheck’s injury has put the arrangement on hold for now, the hope is that Sullivan’s up-tempo system combined with Panarin’s creativity in transition will open up scoring chances for Lafrenière.
“Playing with Bread, he’s going to make plays everywhere,” Lafrenière said. “On the rush if we have numbers, or even two-on-twos and stuff like that, with a guy like that, you gotta try and make plays for him. You know it’s going to come back to you. … It’s hard to score at five-on-five in the NHL, so if you can get chances off the rush, it helps a lot.”
A few examples came Saturday, most notably a play early in the third period. Lafrenière tracked back to retrieve a puck in the defensive zone after the Pens lost possession and quickly got it to Panarin to start the rush. From there, he drove straight to the net to position himself for a centering feed from Zibanejad. The shot missed just wide, but everything up to that point went the way Sullivan would have drawn it up.
(Shayna Goldman / The Athletic)
Playing in the top six with skilled linemates is the best way to get Lafrenière going at even strength, but the Rangers can further boost his confidence by increasing his power-play usage. Sullivan spoke about his desire to do just that during camp, but like his predecessor Peter Laviolette, the coach began the season with the familiar veteran-laden unit of Adam Fox, Miller, Panarin, Trocheck and Zibanejad.
Trocheck’s injury opened the door for a change, though, with Lafrenière moving up to PP1 the last two and a half games and adding a left-handed shot to what had been a righty-heavy unit.
“Whatever the units are, we just gotta win games,” Lafrenière said diplomatically. But he admitted PP time helps him get a better feel for the puck, adding, “Obviously the more touches you get and the more involved you are, you feel more in the game.”
It’s rare for a No. 1 pick to go one season with sporadic looks on the top power-play unit, let alone five. Some would argue it’s been a hindrance to his development, and they’d have a point. But looking back won’t do much good for Lafrenière. With a new voice in Sullivan, plus a familiar one in former Rangers head coach and current assistant David Quinn, he has a chance to change the narrative.
Frankly, the Rangers are counting on it.