For all that went wrong for the Rangers this past season, the loss of their most dominant line at five-on-five was one of the most peculiar.
The most dynamic unit at even strength in 2023-24 — Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafrenière — wasn’t even a semblance of itself in 2024-25. It was a torpedo to the Blueshirts offense, which further crumbled to smithereens without help from the power play.
In a reader question this week, Stan Dumoch wrote to say he believes Lafrenière’s name doesn’t come up as often when blame is assigned for poor play, but he’s wondering what everyone thinks about No. 13 and what the future holds for him.
It’s true, Lafrenière probably didn’t catch as much heat for this past season as did other big-name players in the Rangers lineup. That’s more on account of him still falling into the younger players category than anything else.
