Rangers’ Lafreniere Can Channel Inner Kovalev This Postseason

No one ever viewed Alexei Kovalev the same way after the Russian forward, then just 20 years old, recorded 21 points in 23 postseason games and scored one of the biggest goals of that tournament as the Blueshirts ended a 54-year championship drought. Kovalev’s performance was a sign of things to come for him, as he would excel in the playoffs throughout his 19-year career and finish with 1,029 regular-season points (though his greatest performances outside of the 1994 postseason curiously came for teams other than the Rangers).

Lafreniere, 22, also opened eyes around the NHL this season, busting out for career bests of 28 goals and 29 assists after so-so efforts in his first three seasons. An apparently perfect fit with Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck on one of the league’s most productive lines, Lafreniere finally looked the part of a top overall draft pick, which he was in 2020 amidst the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lafreniere Has Better Chance for Playoff Breakout This Year

With the Blueshirts set to begin the playoffs April 21 against the Washington Capitals, can he deliver a Kovalev reprise and help the Rangers punctuate the 30th anniversary of 1994 by lifting the Cup again? Lafreniere’s 57 points in this, his fourth season, are one more than Kovalev’s total in 1993-94, which was his second. Both players turned in ascendant regular seasons – for Presidents’ Trophy-winning teams, no less – that seemed to signal stardom was on the horizon. And like Kovalev, Lafreniere enters the playoffs as a largely unknown quantity when it comes to producing under the white-hot spotlight of the NHL postseason tournament.

There are obvious differences between the Rangers’ first-round picks that were made 29 years apart, of course – much more substantial ones than their similar first names, which are pronounced the same way (Kovalev’s full first name is Alexei). Kovalev was playing in his first playoffs 30 years ago; Lafreniere isn’t exactly getting his first taste of NHL postseason hockey. He has 27 playoff games of experience under his belt, and has yet to make much of an impact.

However, while Lafreniere played 20 games as a member of the impactful “Kid Line” with Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko during the Blueshirts’ run to within two games of the Stanley Cup Final in 2022, it’s important to note that the unit served as a club’s third line. Lafreniere managed two goals and seven assists, but the unit was nonetheless consequential, with it being Chytil who authored a Kovalev-esque playoff performance with seven goals and two assists, the size, skating and high-end skill that also defined Kovalev’s game fully on display. That effort carried into the 2022-23 season, with Chytil posting career highs of 22 goals and 23 assists and raising expectations for a quantum leap this season, only to have his progress sidetracked by a suspected concussion.

With Chytil just returning to practice recently after being ruled out for the season Jan. 28, his availability and potential impact in the postseason are complete unknowns, having played just 10 games in 2023-24. Kakko, who missed 21 games due to injury, was starting to get hot before going without a point for the final six games of the season, and he’s expected to spend the playoffs on the third line. This year, Lafreniere is the young Rangers forward who appears to have the best chance to be a significant factor in a deep postseason run.

As with Chytil, the Rangers have been exceptionally patient in giving Lafreniere the chance to emerge as a top-six NHL forward. Lafreniere is a different player than the one who played in the tournament in 2022 and especially last year, when he went scoreless in seven games of the Blueshirts’ disastrous loss to the New Jersey Devils, a series in which many of the club’s big guns went silent or underperformed.

Will the memory of that experience, which has clearly played a part in driving the Rangers to new heights this regular season, provide fuel for Lafreniere to achieve a higher level this spring? Kovalev had a golden opportunity to make magic for the Blueshirts during that unforgettable playoff run, playing in the top six – sometimes moving up to the right wing of the top line with Mark Messier and Adam Graves when the Rangers trailed – and on the top power-play unit. Four of his goals in those playoffs came at even strength, while five were with the man advantage.

His most important – and likely the biggest goal of his career – came at 5-on-5 on May 25, 1994, when he took a drop pass from Messier and rifled the puck past Martin Brodeur late in the second period, cutting the Devils’ lead over the Rangers to 2-1 in Game 6 of that epic Eastern Conference Final. The goal unsettled New Jersey, turning the momentum away from the Devils and setting the stage for Messier to deliver the signature moment of his Hall of Fame career in the third period.

Rangers Likely Need Big Effort From Lafreniere to Lift Cup

Unlike the last two postseasons, Lafreniere will be on in mostly the same high-leverage situations Kovalev was 30 years ago, with the notable exception of the power play. The Lafreniere-Panarin-Trocheck line has been by far the Rangers’ best this season and will be leaned upon heavily throughout the playoffs. That means Lafreniere should be in an ideal position to put his stamp on a postseason series – just as he’s done in numerous games in 2023-24.

Another key similarity between Lafreniere and Kovalev? Both of their games came with notable edge. Lafreniere, like Kovalev mild-mannered and pleasant off the ice, plays a physical, sometimes nasty game on it and engages in more than his share of yapping at opponents.

Perhaps most importantly, Lafreniere goes to the high-traffic areas and scores many of his goals from in front or around the goalmouth, pouncing on rebounds and attacking the net looking for passes from his linemates – the type of approach necessary to succeed in the NHL playoff tournament.

Having found chemistry with Panarin, one of the game’s great offensive players, and parlaying that into a confident, productive performance across 82 games of 2023-24, everything should be set up for another youthful, rising Ranger to deliver a memorable playoff effort, three decades after Kovalev etched his name in franchise lore.

Will Lafreniere do enough to add his name to the Stanley Cup, just as Kovalev did? For the Blueshirts to repeat history in this highly successful season that happens to be the anniversary of the franchise’s greatest moment, they’ll need efforts that recall the spring of 1994. Lafreniere doing a Kovalev impression would be a great place to start.