Rangers explore trade market for Alexis Lafrenière

Yesterday was the last day for National Hockey League teams to submit qualifying offers to their restricted free agents in order to retain their rights for today’s opening of the autonomous player market.

On the Montreal Canadiens’ side, we learned that only Denis Gurianov and Joel Teasdale had not received qualifying offers, making them available as free agents today.

Each team had to carry out the same exercise in order to retain the rights of the players they still wished to keep and sign.

On the Rangers’ side, it was clear that former 2020 first overall pick Alexis Lafrenière had received a qualifying offer.

The Rangers therefore retain his rights, and will have to come to an agreement with the Quebec forward on a new contract, given that his NHL entry-level deal is up.

We can expect some kind of bridge contract for Lafrenière, given that he has failed to live up to expectations so far in his career.

This seems to be the only option for Lafrenière at the moment.

However, according to Arthur Staple, who covers the New York Rangers for The Athletic, the Rangers are quietly shopping Lafrenière on the trade market.

Indeed, Rangers general manager Chris Drury is reportedly looking to see if he can secure a good return for the 21-year-old.

The Rangers don’t necessarily want to trade Lafrenière, who is still young and clearly still has great potential, but they do want to take the pulse of the market to see if an offer might interest them.

This is mainly due to the fact that Lafrenière has been disappointing since the start of his career, having just had his best season with 39 points (16 goals and 23 assists) in 81 games.

Clearly, many teams are interested in acquiring such a promising young player.

Lafrenière is the type of player the Montreal Canadiens are looking for.

Could Kent Hughes be tempted again to make a Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook deal?

The CH would certainly be interested in repatriating the Quebecer, who was drafted by Jeff Gorton, now the CH’s vice-president of field hockey operations, when he was GM of the Rangers.

However, we shouldn’t get carried away with this possibility, because as Staple explains in his article, the most plausible avenue is for Lafrenière to sign a short-term contract with the Rangers.

You don’t trade a 21-year-old former first overall pick, especially when he hasn’t really had a chance in the club’s top-6 yet.

The Rangers are simply scouting the market to see if any team would be willing to pay the big money.

In short, it’s another file to keep an eye on in the coming days.

In a gust

– Ekman-Larsson in Florida.

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– Twitter is malfunctioning. The Hurricanes are trying to find a solution.

– Why not.

– There will be plenty of interest in Max Domi on the market.

– The deal is done.

– Another signing in Ottawa.

– Lucic in Boston is only a matter of time.