Alexis Lafrenière could be major X-factor for Rangers

The New York Rangers were in a prime position at the NHL Trade Deadline with an already good team that had mountains of unused salary cap space to work with to improve their roster. They did not waste that opportunity, acquiring Frank Vatrano, Andrew Copp, and Tyler Motte in a series of trades.

All three are strong additions that should help add some much-needed depth to their forward lineup. But for as good as those pickups are, it might be a player that was already on the roster that holds one of the keys to their potential playoff success.

That player: 2020 No. 1 overall pick Alexis Lafrenière. He is also starting to play some of the best hockey of his young career for the Rangers right now. That is important.

The Rangers’ rebuild has been a combination of aggressive spending in free agency (Artemi Panarin, Jacob Trouba, Barclay Goodrow), some good luck (Adam Fox only wanting to play for them, and him also being an instant impact player), finding another franchise goalie (Igor Shesterkin), and some really, really, really good draft lottery luck that saw them get a pair of top-two picks (Lafrenière and Kaapo Kakko) without ever having to truly bottom out in the standings.

It has produced a fascinating team. They might not be the best team in the Eastern Conference, but they are definitely one of the most intriguing.

Objectively speaking, they have had some flaws this season. They surrender more shot attempts, expected goals and scoring chances than any other playoff team, and by a fairly significant margin. They have also had some depth scoring issues beyond their top two lines. Those are two fairly significant flaws that would seem to lower their ceiling in the playoffs. Stanley Cup teams do not surrender shots and