Can Alexis Lafreniere sustain hot run with New York Rangers?

Halloween may only be one day, but something that’s been scary for the New York Rangers for a couple years is the looming concern of their young guns. While Filip Chytil had a break out year last season and in the Rangers recent playoff appearances, their two top-two picks in Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko have struggled to live up to their potential. That’s been masked so far by the play of players like Igor Shesterkin, Adam Fox, Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad, but once that group gets older, especially the forwards, they’ll need the younger guys to step up.

So far this season, Lafreniere has managed to do just that, scoring four goals in the Rangers’ first nine games on a line with Panarin and Chytil. It’s worked out well so far, but is Lafreniere’s success a mirage or a sign that he’s starting to blossom into the player the Rangers they thought they were getting at first overall in 2020?

Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk brought the Halloween spirit to Daily Faceoff Live on Tuesday, and determined whether or not Lafreniere’s start to the season is a trick or a treat.

Frank Seravalli: I’m kind of leaning more towards trick. Look, I think if you’re a Rangers fan, you’re super excited about what you’ve seen from Lafreniere to this point, certainly with the way that the preseason went. He’s a guy that looked lost in the first couple weeks of training camp, and all of a sudden you’re having to ask some bigger foundational questions about if Lafreniere doesn’t get going, if Kakko doesn’t get moving in the right direction, how can the Rangers try and find a way to fill out their bottom six and get some meaningful production from those guys?

So to me, this is a really positive development for New York, but I think it’s a little too early to say yet that he’s completely arrived.

You can watch the full episode here…