New York Rangers & Alexis Lafreniere Agree To 7 More Years On Broadway
Confirmed, per source: #NYR and Alexis Lafrenière have agreed to a seven-year, $52.15 million extension. AAV is $7.45M, as first reported by @PuckPedia.
— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) October 25, 2024
In 2019, the New York Rangers were fortunate enough to jump up 4 spots & grab Kaapo Kakko who was the unanimous next-best thing behind the potentially generational talent of Jack Hughes. The very next year their lottery luck was even greater, vaulting all the way to the top spot & making the no-brainer selection of Alexis Lafreniere. It looked like the Blueshirts were armed with slam-dunk young pieces to fast-track their return to relevancy. Instead, Kakko and Lafreniere kicked off their careers fighting off "bust" labels while trying to find their ways.
While the jury is still out on Kakko, there's no longer any doubt Laffy is on his way to stardom.
His first three seasons were pretty rough and I'm sure being under the New York microscope didn't help. 47 goals & 44 apples in 216 games certainly weren't coming close to even the lowest of expectations for a #1 overall pick who, thanks to the combination of lackluster production & playing the left side behind Kreider/Panarin, was unable to stake claim to a top-six role. In comes new coach Peter Laviolette last summer to kick Lafreniere over to the right side & provide him with every opportunity to succeed playing opposite the Breadman. While it didn't look promising in training camp, Lavi stuck to his guns and the kid has taken off ever since. The 23 year-old racked up 28 goals & 57 points last year - 26 & 51 at even strength, which placed him within the league's top-20 & top-40 respectively. That's elite even-strength production that didn't falter come playoffs with 8 even-strength goals. Only Zach Hyman had more in the entire postseason and he played 9 more games.
With a 2-year/$2.325M per bridge deal set to expire & a hot start to his 5th pro season (4G/3A in 7 games) it's no surprise the Rangers made it a priority to lock up Lafreniere for years 24-30 at a price tag that's undoubtedly to end up a bargain. More and more teams are doing this with their young talent because they're always going to get more bang for their buck when part of the contract includes buying out RFA years. Lafreniere COULD just seek another low AAV two-year bridge before hitting his first UFA year and chasing a much bigger AAV in 2027 but A) there's always risk involved, injury or otherwise B) the difference in total pay is likely negligible between a bridge deal now/long-term later vs long-term now and most importantly C) inking a long-term deal now better positions himself to hammer out another big ticket at 30 years old instead of 32-33. Everybody wins.
The easiest comparable across the league is 22 year-old Seth Jarvis, who just entered the first of 8 years at a tick under $7.5M/per. While Jarvis had the slight edge in production last season it was only due to a team-leading 2:56 per night on their top powerplay unit that led to a bonus 13 goals & 20 points. Lafreniere still finds himself outside PP1 but as teammates age & contracts end it's only a matter of time before he gets the promotion - and when he does, we're looking at 40/40 level production or better for under 8% of the salary cap. Jarvis brings a tougher two-way game to the ice, but in terms of production Lafreniere's similar per-year price tag should be robbery in comparison…and this organization is gonna need every "robbery" contract they can get to offset the bag they're inevitably dumping for pending UFA Igor Shesterkin.
VIVA LA BLUESHIRTS!!!!