Of all the problems for an NHL team to have at the start of training camp, a burgeoning player needing more opportunities is one any would like to have.
Such is a headlining matter for Alexis Lafreniere and the New York Rangers as they prepare for their first official on-ice session of the preseason on Thursday at MSG Training Center.
It’s one that has taken shape quickly since the second half of last season, when Lafreniere was one of the team’s most consistent skaters after his game finally clicked at the NHL level.
Head coach Peter Laviolette acknowledged Lafreniere’s breakout campaign, but as for exploring an expanded role for the 22-year-old wing, he said that’s what training camp is for.
“There’s definitely a confidence that you see with him in his game, and then watching it build all year into the playoffs,” Laviolette said in his pre-camp news conference with reporters on Wednesday. “He had a very good year. What you’d like to see from a young player, or from a team, is to continue to push every day to find ways to be better. To find ways to do more than you did before. Doesn’t always work that way. But with regard to a team, with regard to a player, you want to see people continue to take the next step.
“He certainly had a strong year that seemed to get better and stronger and more confident as the year went on. We’d like to see him take steps from there.”
The late-blooming 2020 first-overall pick saw his average ice time jump from 15:13 to 17:16 last season while skating on one of the most high-profile lines in the league with Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck.
Setting career highs in several categories at the conclusion of the regular season, posting 28 goals and 29 assists, Lafreniere only upped his game in the postseason.
The eight goals he scored and six assists he dished in 16 playoff contests were crucial, but it was the repeated impact he was able to make on a game-to-game basis that was most impressive
Laviolette said he thought Lafreniere already had a big role, noting that he played on a line with one of the NHL’s leading scorers and logged meaningful minutes.
The increased workload reflected in Lafreniere’s statistics, which is naturally the thought process behind getting the Quebec native even more.
One way to do so would be to put Lafreniere on the Rangers’ top power-play unit, which receives a bulk of the man-advantage time in comparison to the second unit he is usually on.
It is, however, a lot more complicated than that.
“Our power play and our penalty kill were excellent last year,” Laviolette said of the Rangers special teams, which finished among the top three clubs in both categories. “In order to be successful as a team, they have to be. The power play operated at a very high number. And this is what training camp is for. It’s a chance to look at different people or different units. But you try to find the balance sometimes between something that is really successful and then mixing it up and moving it around.
“There will be opportunity where things will get looked at differently through training camp, and not just for him.”
Lafreniere will likely get a look on the first power play, but there’s no guarantee he stays there.
Laviolette will have to navigate his understandable reflex to keep one of the best power-play units in the league together, while also figuring out what is best for his blossoming star.
Why fix what isn’t broken? But also, why not make the change that could possibly make it better for everyone?