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Sportsnet: Following the Chychrun information, Elliotte Friedman dives into talking about the situation with Alexis Lafreniere and the New York Rangers. Despite Lafreniere being a healthy scratch the Rangers have no plans of trading the young forward.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
“There does not need to be a rush to judgment here in terms of anything happening quickly in terms of Alexis Lafreniere being traded.”
He then goes on to talk about how he has covered Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant over the years and he understands the way he thinks. Friedman feels that Gallant is not a guy who likes to keep players out of the lineup for a long period of time. Thus someone has to go out of the lineup if a player is going to enter the lineup.
Spit Balling Five Trades and Alexis Lafreniere Decision – Mark Easson
With Sammy Blais coming in, Lafreniere had to come out of the lineup. In addition, Gallant wants his players to give everything they got on a consistent night-in and night-out basis. If that does not happen, he will sit them out. Like we saw with Lafreniere.
“I don’t think there is a rush to me the Rangers are looking to trade this player. I don’t think anything is imminent or he is on the block or the team is sending out feelers or things like that. This is the way this coach handles his players. He has been very consistent with that.
One thing is earlier in the year when the Rangers were struggling one thing I heard the Rangers indicated was they were not looking to make moves as much as they were looking for people who were better last year in the playoffs to show more of that form in the regular season. I think that is the way they still look at it.”
One of those players the organization wants more out of is Lafreniere. He was in a similar situation last year before the playoffs when he was a healthy scratch and caught fire in the playoffs. The Rangers are holding players to higher standards this season with expectations.
While the Rangers had players in the past indicate they wanted to be traded Friedman notes that Lafreniere has not made it known he wants to be traded, but that could change.
