The Rangers selected Lafreniere with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, making him a key piece of their rebuild. After several years of inconsistent play and a lack of a clear role under former head coach Gerard Gallant, Lafreniere is finally starting to break out in the 2023-24 season. He now appears to be on track to become the star player the Rangers hoped he would be when they selected him with the top pick.

Lafreniere, who scored a career-high 28 goals for 57 points in the regular season a year ago, was one of the Rangers’ best players in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and is off to a great start this season with four goals and three assists. The team’s first seven games.

What makes this so important for the Rangers is that their $7.45 million cap hit doesn’t even rank among the top 85 salary cap numbers in the NHL, and will almost certainly fall even further down the rankings within a few years. long-term contracts are signed. Assuming Lafreniere continues on his current trajectory (and there’s little reason to believe he won’t), he should be performing above that number in a year or two. This is also a contract that buys out his prime years, where he should be scoring goals at top rates in the NHL. It is not out of the question to think that he could be a player who scores 35-40 goals and scores 90+ points in a few years.

This is also a win for Lafreniere because he will still only be 30 years old when his contract expires. This would allow him to hit unrestricted free agency at some point in his career where he still has top-tier play ahead of him and could possibly earn at least one more big contract in his NHL career.

After Lafreniere’s contract is signed, the Rangers’ next order of business will be to sign starting baseman Igor Shesterkin to a long-term deal. He is their best and most important player and is set to become an unrestricted free agent after this season. He will likely reset the goalie market and set a new high for the position. What matters is whether the Rangers are the team willing to meet that price.