Stephen Valiquette sees more than a hot start when he looks at Alexis Lafrenière.
On Blueshirts Breakaway this week, Valiquette made the case that Lafrenière’s strong play is part of a longer arc that began after the Olympic break last season, when he quietly took over the Rangers’ stat sheet during a stretch that didn’t come with much team success. Even then, Valiquette said, the circumstances made it hard to judge the numbers in a normal way.
“It wasn't always easy for him to slot where a No. 1 pick should slot [in] coming out of the gate because it was a stronger team he was joining," he said. "It's not like he was Connor Bedard joining Chicago. It's a totally different conversation."
From there, Valiquette zeroed in on what Lafrenière did once the season was already slipping away. He said he tends to discount that kind of production when looking back on his own career and on teammates, because the late stages of a lost season don’t carry the same weight.
"As a [former] player, I would discount garbage time for my teammates and for myself," he said, referencing that stretch. "Going into an offseason where you don't make the playoffs, you shouldn't feel good about your own personal outcomes, other than motivated to get into the summer and prove that what happened at the end of the year wasn't a fluke, and that you can do it when it matters."
For Valiquette, though, Lafrenière has taken that finish and carried it right into this season. He framed the winger’s current run as proof that last spring was not some isolated spike, but part of a trend that has kept rolling.
"The most pressure and expectations are always on the teams who are coming off a season in which they didn't make the playoffs," he continued. "There's a lot of pressure on this Rangers team right now. They've missed the playoffs two years in a row, [and] with the pressure on the team and the pressure on Lafrenière, he's delivering."
"It's really [showing that] last year's run, post-Olympics, has blended into the beginning of the year," he emphasized. "And it's valued."
The Rangers’ goalie situation is a very different kind of conversation, and one that only got louder after Igor Shesterkin’s season-ending injury. On The Chris Johnston Show, Chris Johnston said the team will have to keep scanning the market, and he named a few experienced options that could be on the radar.
"There's guys like Vitek Vanecek and David Rittich [and] other experienced goalies who've passed through waivers and were sent down to the American Hockey League," Johnston said, before wondering whether Samuel Montembeault could become a target once he returns from his own injury.
"All of these things will certainly be considered by the Rangers because they have to scour the market to see what's out there," he continued. "But [Dylan] Garand might make the most sense in the short term because it's not easy to go out there and get one of these players."
Johnston also touched on Jordan Binnington of the St. Louis Blues when McKenzie brought him up, but he didn’t sound like someone expecting movement anytime soon. A trade, he suggested, would be more of a later-season question than a near-term one.
"We might have a discussion about him as we get deeper into the year, but a lot of that is going to be tied to the performance of the Blues and if they can stay in the playoff race through the meat of the season."
In Other News...
Rangers May Have A New Goaltending Question After Brutal OT Loss
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Dylan Garand's performance also adds another layer to the goaltending picture for a team still trying to settle things down in goal. New York did not get the result it wanted, but it did get a glimpse of a young netminder who was forced to carry a heavy load in a tight, low-scoring game, and the way he responded should keep the conversation going as the Rangers look for stability on the road. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Could Trigger The Goalie Domino That Reshapes This Market
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For the Rangers, the bigger question is whether they choose to act before the market tightens further. If they do, they could end up shaping where Hellebuyck lands without ever entering that bidding themselves, and that is the kind of indirect leverage teams look for when a top goalie becomes available. Nothing has been finalized yet, but with multiple teams circling and Winnipeg still exploring options, New Yorks next step could wind up carrying more weight than it first appears. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Just Got Another Reminder About Jaroslav Chmelar
Jaroslav Chmelars latest turn with the Rangers did not produce a point, and his ice time was limited across seven games in New York. Back in Hartford with the Wolf Pack, though, the winger has at least given the organization a reminder of why it remains interested in his development, scoring a goal in a recent game while leading the team with six shots on goal.
The Rangers have now sent Chmelar back to Hartford to keep building his game and confidence, while veteran Taylor Raddysh has been recalled to fill the NHL roster spot. For Chmelar, the path is still about translating flashes in the AHL into something more consistent at the top level, and the organization will be watching closely to see how he responds after another reset. [Read more 🡒]