Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re has a path to capturing his best game<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe call to put Lafreni\u00e8re on the Rangers top power-play unit predates Sullivan by over five seasons, when a ping-pong ball with a Blueshirts crest popped out of NHL\u2019s lottery machine and scored the organization the right to draft the talented wing first overall in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A loaded man-advantage unit with heaps of successful history and the three previous coaches who oversaw it deprived Lafreni\u00e8re of a consistent opportunity over the last few seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Sullivan sounded intent on utilizing Lafreni\u00e8re in a way that\u2019s going to unlock the 23-year-old\u2019s full potential.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re going to get the best version of Laf, I think we got to provide a pathway to try to give him an opportunity to capture his very best game,\u201d Sullivan said after the first session Saturday in Tarrytown. \u201cI think some power-play time on that top unit is an essential part of it, and so our intention is to try to provide a pathway for Laf to allow him an opportunity to get his game to another level.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re will get a chance to earn a spot on the Rangers\u2019 top power-play unit. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
Lafreni\u00e8re, who has finished among the Rangers\u2019 top five even-strength goal scorers in all but one season, rotated into both units along with Vincent Trocheck during practice Saturday. <\/p>\n
The first group consisted of Adam Fox, Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad and J.T Miller, while the second featured Will Cuylle, Gabe Perreault, Scott Morrow and Matt Rempe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At one point, Sullivan told Lafreni\u00e8re he wasn\u2019t moving around enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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The veteran coach\u2019s push for constant activity and different personnel variations should help a Rangers power play that increasingly became stale and predictable last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou saw us work six guys into the top unit today,\u201d Sullivan said of the power play, which finished with the fifth-worst percentage in the NHL last season at 17.6. \u201cIt gives us the opportunity to present a different look, different sticks, lefties, righties, different positions, completely different look, which makes us \u2014 I think \u2014 more difficult to defend against because of that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sullivan said that he, the coaching staff and president and general manager Chris Drury, had lengthy discussions about the composition and logistics of the power-play units. <\/p>\n
Mike Sullivan speaks to the media on Sept. 17, 2025. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
He said he had multiple objectives in mind when it came to how he wants to utilize his players and manage their workloads.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While Sullivan doesn\u2019t foresee much of a change regarding the division of ice time between the two units, the Rangers new bench boss wants the top group to evolve. <\/p>\n
The first unit has always received a bulk of the allotted time, but Sullivan said the staff is bringing the group new ideas to work with.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re Getty Images<\/p>\n
And since there are several top power-play guys who double as top penalty killers, Sullivan is also hyper aware of what kind of toll that can take on certain players.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re going to manage workloads appropriately over the course of the season, we\u2019re trying to get the best version of every guy,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we go to the same guys in every situation, my experience has been that adds up, as forwards, to 22-plus minutes a night, 22-plus minutes a night times 82 games is an awful lot of hockey. I\u2019m not sure we\u2019re going to get the best version of everybody. The pace of the game today and the physicality of the game, that\u2019s very difficult. There are some players who can handle that, but those are unique circumstances.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look at the group we have in our top six, our top players also kill penalties. Well, if they\u2019re on the first power play, and they\u2019re in the top six, and they\u2019re killing penalties, and they\u2019re defending the lead five-on-six and then they\u2019re on six-on-five when we\u2019re chasing a game, that adds up to 22-plus minutes. We\u2019ve got to find a way to manage their minutes. That\u2019s big picture stuff that I\u2019ve thought about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New head coach Mike Sullivan broke down his power-play philosophy as it pertains to the Rangers in three…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":260602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[66395,66396,1302,293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-260601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-alexis-lafreniere","9":"tag-mike-sullivan-nhl","10":"tag-new-york-rangers","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115280440840209029","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}