He also became the 8th New York Ranger ever to score the first and last goal of the season for the team.
His breakout season was long overdue and after head coach Peter Laviolette was introduced to the team, he made the decision to pair him up with Rangers superstar Artemi Panarin.
Making this line change and sticking to it was one of the best decisions he ever did as this allowed Lafrenière to blossom and to break out of his stats ceiling.
Bring his first three seasons with the team he had a modest goal scoring between 12 and 19 goals per year.
He never eclipsed 40 points.
This season through 82 games, he had scored 28 goals with 29 assists for 57 points and was a + 2 with 40 penalty minutes.
He has improved in every metric of his game since being moved to Panarin's line and is expected to be a force in the playoffs as his breakout season continues to grow.
Several fans and other pundits across the league felt that the Rangers needed to move on from Lafrenière as his numbers were not improving and his play was lacking.
But general manager Chris Drury did not make the change and chose to stick with it and it has paid off in spades.
POLL | ||
Will Alexis Lafreniere continue his break out season in the playoffs? | ||
Yes | 83 | 93.3 % |
No | 6 | 6.7 % |
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