Possible trade involving Alexis Lafrenière: a Canadian team is currently in the lead

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MarcO
January 14, 2023 (5:48 PM)

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For the past few weeks, we can say that the fire between Alexis Lafrenière and his coach Gerard Gallant has been burning.

Left out a few days ago, and then placed on the fourth line, the first overall pick in the 2020 draft has been slow to make his mark in the NHL, with only 18 points in 42 games so far this season and no goals in his last 10 games.

Still, as reported by Marco Normandin of Habsolumentfan.com, several sources believe that Rangers general manager Chris Drury has no intention of trading the young forward and that the organization still believes in his potential.

However, several trade rumors have been circulating lately regarding the possible arrival of Patrick Kane with the Rangers and Lafreniere's name has been mentioned by some experts.

But now, according to Rick Dhaliwal of The Athletic, another team has shown interest in the Rangers' No. 13.

During the Insider Trading segment on TSN, the tipster mentioned that the Vancouver Canucks would be the most aggressive team in this matter. Considering Lafreniere's former agent, Emilie Castonguay, is now an assistant general manager in Vancouver, it should come as no surprise that Canucks management has a huge interest in his services.

Even though Lafreniere is currently replacing Chris Kreider on the Rangers' first line, the results are not very conclusive.

The Rangers are expected to be one of the buying teams at the trade deadline this year and as we know, Canucks captain Bo Horvat and Brock Boeser are currently on the market and both players could very well be of interest to the Rangers.

However, the price to acquire Alexis Lafreniere could be very high and I doubt that Horvat and Boeser will be enough for a potential transaction to happen between the two teams.

Even if the chances of Lafreniere being traded by the trade deadline are pretty slim, it will still be interesting to follow this file closely over the next few weeks.