Staple Lafreniere 'Hasn't Shown the Level of Dedication to His Offseason Work,'

[The Dude]

8 hours ago, BrooksBurner said:

 

You said he hasn't faced the level of competition as the others have, and it's just not true. He played significant minutes with Zibanejad the first two years. IIRC year 1 was no training camp and thrown right into regular season games because of covid. Everyone wrote off year 1, so I could care less about pulling corsi or most of these other stats. I did notice you cherry picked corsi and ignored the 58% GF% that Laf/Zib/Buch line posted though.

 

Yes, the kid line clicked and he's not a RW, so he stayed on the kid line in his natural position while Vatrano and Copp played RW. Riveting.

 

He probably doesn't fit at RW because he's not a RW, and that experiment had to be forced because Kreider decided to pot 50 goals and deserved to stick as a top line LW even though I argued Kreids was an excellent candidate to be moved over. Laf was consistently LW with Chytil as he should have been because it's the position he plays. It should be where he is next season too.

 

His 5v5 numbers are better than RNH, especially the goal scoring. Disappointment is ultimately linked to hype. Lafreniere was supposed to be somewhere near the top of the tier below McDavid and Matthews. His 5v5 production is at that level, as surprising as that might seem given the lack of explosiveness via eye test. The eye test can be debated all day long, of which I'm wishy washy. He goes through spouts of invisibility (completely invisible in the NJD series) and making quality plays, yet the 5v5 production is in line with other 1 OA picks. Maybe he's just knows where to go on the ice, indicating a higher IQ, and the physical will catch up.

 

Re: last paragraph, yes, he didn't step in and have to be the guy like most if not all of those other guys, but you can't discount his unique position that those other guys didn't experience either. You don't know how these other guys would have done in his position either. The fact remains his 5v5 production is still in line and competitive despite his shortcomings, and we all agree he's not even close to where he needs to be yet physically.

How is it, you can say In one post that Lafrenière hasn't gotten the chances, yet say things like "he played significant minutes with Zibanejad the 1st 2 years" , and even show in other posts,  that this past season he had the most minutes at RW with Panarin compared to any player on the team? 

 

Which is it? He gets chances and fails or he gets no chances and fails less than people say? 

 

 

 

[BrooksBurner]

3 minutes ago, The Dude said:

How is it, you can say In one post that Lafrenière hasn't gotten the chances, yet say things like "he played significant minutes with Zibanejad the 1st 2 years" , and even show in other posts,  that this past season he had the most minutes at RW with Panarin compared to any player on the team? 

 

Which is it? He gets chances and fails or he gets no chances and fails less than people say? 

 

 

 

 

Failure depends on perspective. Has he failed to be a “special” 1OA? Yes. Has he failed to be a typical 1OA F? The 5v5 stats say no.

 

He’s not in the Matthews tier. That stinks. It doesn’t mean he’s Yakupov, Stefan, or Daigle either.

[The Dude]

17 minutes ago, BrooksBurner said:

 

Failure depends on perspective. Has he failed to be a “special” 1OA? Yes. Has he failed to be a typical 1OA F? The 5v5 stats say no.

 

He’s not in the Matthews tier. That stinks. It doesn’t mean he’s Yakupov, Stefan, or Daigle either.

And this is where the discussion typically winds up. 

 

The disappointment is far too great for some of us to forget that he was labeled a franchise player before he was drafted. 

 

The 5V5 say no, but the eye test and the lack of being exceptionally good at anything, puts him in the pile of Yakupov and Stepan. Atleast Daigle wowed some people and later admitted he wasn't really into playing the sport. Lafrenières lack of commitment to his offseason training,  shows (to me), maybe he too isn't really into playing the sport or playing it seriously. Or playing it with the Rangers.  

 

I'm not going to be surprised if/when he finds his way to Montreals doorstep.  It's really a better fit and opportunity for him at the moment.  I've been saying it for over a year. An offer sheet wouldn't surprise me.  And it wouldn't be a big enough offer to command good compensation, but still big enough for the Rangers to not match. 

Edited June 26, 2023 by The Dude

[Br4d]

I could definitely see Laffy trying to get home onto a roster where he'd be the big deal and get the playing time and opportunity that goes with that.

 

This is not the Ranger's fault but clearly they weren't in a position to develop him through whatever may come at the point that they drafted him.

 

They also didn't have the cap space available to take advantage of trading the pick.

[Sharpshooter]

I'm not giving up on him at all, but he hasn't been put in a spot where most first overall picks are in either. Let's face it, the Rangers were lucky as hell to get the first overall pick that year. It was really only because of COVID. That Rangers team was not a lottery type team by any stretch. Having said that, I'm not too overly optimistic of Lafreniere the player because in his first three years in the league, he doesn't really do anything well. Yeah, it takes time for some to start putting up points, but that's really the thing with him. With him he barely looks like an NHL player a majority of the time.

[RangersIn7]

1 hour ago, Sharpshooter said:

I'm not giving up on him at all, but he hasn't been put in a spot where most first overall picks are in either. Let's face it, the Rangers were lucky as hell to get the first overall pick that year. It was really only because of COVID. That Rangers team was not a lottery type team by any stretch. Having said that, I'm not too overly optimistic of Lafreniere the player because in his first three years in the league, he doesn't really do anything well. Yeah, it takes time for some to start putting up points, but that's really the thing with him. With him he barely looks like an NHL player a majority of the time.

I disagree with that. Kid looks like a hockey player to me. And he’s improved quite a bit from that rookie season. 
 

Regardless though, he needs to work harder and get better. Huge year for him

[Sharpshooter]

3 minutes ago, RangersIn7 said:

I disagree with that. Kid looks like a hockey player to me. And he’s improved quite a bit from that rookie season. 
 

Regardless though, he needs to work harder and get better. Huge year for him

It really is. He also seemed to be one of Gallant's biggest critics, so maybe this is exactly what he needs (partly). He did look to be in better shape this year, and his skating seemed better. He still needs to show and do a lot more though.

[RangersIn7]

1 hour ago, Sharpshooter said:

It really is. He also seemed to be one of Gallant's biggest critics, so maybe this is exactly what he needs (partly). He did look to be in better shape this year, and his skating seemed better. He still needs to show and do a lot more though.

Yeah. I don’t really buy the narrative on him. 
While it’s not healthy to make excuses for guys, and he’s obviously not blameless, I look at the circumstances and then look at the production and then hear what everyone is saying and it makes me think.., it’s not a surprise.

 

Part of me also says that maybe that whole narrative is a bit overblown.

What I mean is this…

Yes, he needs to work on and improve his conditioning. But maybe the organization kinda dropped that for 2 reasons.

First being honestly that it’s true. Not discounting that. And it was put out there for effect and said to produce an effect. 
All of which is fine. 

But also, maybe it’s partially a CYA thing cause they realize they haven’t exactly done right by him.

That seems at least somewhat possible to me. 
 

All of that is speculation too and I’ll acknowledge that I could be dead wrong. 
 

I do think it should fall back mostly on the player at this point. He needs to do the work and improve aspects of his playing ability.

But they gotta do more. 
 

If you bring a kid like him in, and do so under the circumstances that he’s operated under, you better compensate in another area, and they probably haven’t. 
 

Either way… we will see. Right now, it’s his move and we will see what he does with it in response. 

[Sharpshooter]

21 hours ago, RangersIn7 said:

Yeah. I don’t really buy the narrative on him. 
While it’s not healthy to make excuses for guys, and he’s obviously not blameless, I look at the circumstances and then look at the production and then hear what everyone is saying and it makes me think.., it’s not a surprise.

 

Part of me also says that maybe that whole narrative is a bit overblown.

What I mean is this…

Yes, he needs to work on and improve his conditioning. But maybe the organization kinda dropped that for 2 reasons.

First being honestly that it’s true. Not discounting that. And it was put out there for effect and said to produce an effect. 
All of which is fine. 

But also, maybe it’s partially a CYA thing cause they realize they haven’t exactly done right by him.

That seems at least somewhat possible to me. 
 

All of that is speculation too and I’ll acknowledge that I could be dead wrong. 
 

I do think it should fall back mostly on the player at this point. He needs to do the work and improve aspects of his playing ability.

But they gotta do more. 
 

If you bring a kid like him in, and do so under the circumstances that he’s operated under, you better compensate in another area, and they probably haven’t. 
 

Either way… we will see. Right now, it’s his move and we will see what he does with it in response. 

I think both parties could be at fault, sure. But the fact that he still really doesn't look that great in any aspect and didn't' really take his conditioning seriously is still alarming, to say the least. Again, I'm not giving up on him by any stretch, but despite whatever situations he's been put in, he has miserably failed the eye test.