Should the Rangers trade Alexis Lafreniere?

The 2025-26 NHL regular season has not gone as the New York Rangers would have hoped, with effort issues plaguing J.T. Miller and other star players and a fresh injury to Igor Shesterkin derailing their season. 

Earlier this week, the hockey club’s president and general manager, Chris Drury, addressed the fanbase in a letter, explaining the struggles and the hopes for the future. Yet, given how things are going with the Rangers and their potential options, could they move one of their top young players, Alex Lafreniere, before the NHL Trade Deadline?

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Johnny Lazarus joined hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton to break down the possibility. 

Tyler Yaremchuk: They’re saying it’s a retool, not a rebuild, which again, you can kind of roll your eyes at a little bit, but everything seems fairly bolted down. Mika Zibanejad has a no-move, J.T. Miller has a no-move. They’re not going to trade Alexis Lafreniere, are they?

Johnny Lazarus: I think they’re considering it heavily, really, if there’s a good enough offer for it. Just like Trevor Zegras moving from the Anaheim Ducks to the Philadelphia Flyers, sometimes a guy needs a change, the change of scenery, right? 

You see a young player who sometimes just doesn’t get the opportunity right away, and their confidence dwindles. I think we’ve kind of seen that a little bit with Lafreniere, even though two years ago, he looked like the most confident guy on the planet. But, I think, in fairness, like Lafreniere has a seven-year contract and some people might say he’s overpaid because he hasn’t played great this year, but seven years and $7 million AAV for a guy who has the skill we’ve seen, it’s not a huge risk to trade for a guy like that.

You can catch the rest of the Rangers segment and Thursday’s entire show here…