Alexis LaFreniere signs extension with the NY Rangers

The New York Rangers and Alexis LaFreniere have agreed on a new extension after this season has come to an end. Sources close to Bad Dawg Sports have confirmed the deal between the Rangers and LaFreniere as a seven-year deal with a $52.15 million extension and an AAV of around $7.45 Million. This deal is fair as LaFreniere continues to improve from last season, and the Rangers didn’t overpay to keep him. He’s already off to a good start by scoring four goals and three assists in seven games.

Since being drafted number one overall back in 2020, under David Quinn and then under Gerard Gallant, LaFreniere has shown steady progress since the Covid era as he scored a combined forty seven goals, and forty-four assists, for ninety-one points. His highest goal total was in the 2021-22 season with Nineteen. When Peter Laviolette took over the Rangers last season, Lafreniere exploded with Twenty-Eight Goals and Twenty-Nine assists and he’s rolling right now with another hot start to the season.

You can see him play stronger and better when he has moved away from the kid line with Filip Chytil and Kappo Kakko and joined the adult table with Vincent Trocheck and Artemi Panarin. Right now that line has a combination of Tweleve Goals, Fifteen Assists for Twenty-Seven points in these first seven games. Without a doubt, Alexis LaFreniere is the future of the Rangers and he is also one of the hopes from those in Quebec province to be the next superstar in the NHL since Vincent Lecavalier who played at the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The way he skates up the ice is perfection, his hands are so smooth when he Corrales the puck, and his imagination is second to none when he either passes the puck between his legs to himself and then shoots on the forehand or when he fools Tristan Jarry in the season opener at Pittsburgh, when he held the puck, allowed the defender to slide across in front of him, then pulled the string to go short side for a fabulous two zero lead at PPG Paints Arena. To me, this was a no-brainer for the Rangers to keep one of their young stars who will rise above and be counted on to win games and score goals during a long playoff run.

Excellent work from President and General Manager Chris Drury to lock up LaFreniere for the future. One hole is filled, and now the other hole needs to be taken care of, and we all know who that is. Drury needs to lock up Shesterkin for the foreseeable future and when that moment happens we shall be waiting with baited breath.