Lafreniere part of Vancouver Canucks trade talks with Rangers: report
The Vancouver Canucks were reportedly in trade talks with the New York Rangers to acquire a former first-overall pick this weekend.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman dropped a bombshell report on Saturday night that said the Canucks almost held J.T. Miller out of the lineup as trade talks with the Rangers progressed. For whatever reason, that did not come to fruition, but speculation has only ramped up.
Thanks to a new report from The New York Post’s Larry Brooks, we now know that the Canucks may be targeting forward Alexis Lafreniere, who went first-overall to Rangers in the 2020 NHL Draft.
“It is believed that Alexis Lafreniere’s name has been prominent in the discussion,” Brooks reported.
@NYP_Brooksie: “Mika Zibanejad will not be part of the bounty going to Vancouver in a potential deal for Miller…It is believed that Alexis Lafreniere’s name has been prominent in the discussion.” #NYR https://t.co/Tht6gqcj8R
— WILLY COOLS 🥶🎅🎄4 MVP (22-20-3) (@BaldPanarin) January 19, 2025
Lafreniere was the recipient of a mountain of hype during his draft season but hasn’t quite lived up to his first-overall billing. He has morphed into a solid player, scoring 28 goals and 57 points last season, but he is far from one of the league’s best.
The Quebec-born forward is, however, still 23 and seems to be developing into more of the player that people expected him to be of late. It has just taken a bit longer than usual. Lafreniere currently has 11 goals and 25 points in 45 games this season, which is just a tad behind Miller’s totals this season.
Lafreniere also has an interesting connection to Vancouver, having once been a client of Canucks AGM Emilie Castonguay when she was a player agent.
That wasn’t all that Brooks reported. The veteran Rangers beat reporter also mentioned that three players on New York’s AHL squad (The Hartford Wolf Pack) were scratched last night and could have potentially been part of a deal with Vancouver.
He mentioned forwards Bo Groulx, Adam Sykora, and Jaroslav Chmelar as players who were held out and could have possibly been a part of a larger deal.
Groulx is a 24-year-old former second-round pick of the Anaheim Ducks from 2018, Sykora was drafted 63rd-overall by the Rangers in 2022, and Chmelar is a fifth-round pick of New York in 2021. None of those three players have spent a significant amount of time in the NHL so far and have not played with the Rangers so far this season.
Lafreniere would be the big prize for the Canucks in this kind of deal, but will the two sides be able to find enough common ground to pull the trigger on a trade? Time will tell.