The New York Rangers‘ most interesting lineup decision of the summer may already be made. Vincent Z. Mercogliano of The Athletic projects Alexis Lafreniere to open next season on the first line alongside Mika Zibanejad and offseason addition Pavel Dorofeyev, a projection Pro Hockey Rumors’ Ethan Hetu examined Sunday in making the case that 2026-27 could be a career year for the 2020 first overall pick.
Lafreniere finished last season with 24 goals and 57 points, tying his career high in a year the Rangers otherwise want to forget. The more meaningful stretch came late. After New York traded Artemi Panarin to the Los Angeles Kings, Lafreniere inherited a full-time spot on the first power-play unit and responded with 14 goals and 28 points over his final 27 games, the most on the team in that span. His 15 power-play points nearly tripled his previous career high of six, a number built across seasons of second-unit shifts that often amounted to the last 30 seconds of a man advantage.
Why it matters
Dorofeyev is the piece that changes the line’s shape. He scored a career-high 37 goals and 64 points for Vegas last season, then added 12 goals in 22 games during the Golden Knights’ run to the Stanley Cup Final. Lafreniere has been a natural playmaker since his QMJHL days but has never skated regular minutes with a finisher of that caliber. Zibanejad, who led the Rangers with 34 goals and 78 points, gives the unit its established center.
The caution is the sample. Twenty-seven games at the end of a lost season demonstrate opportunity, not transformation, and Lafreniere has carried summer expectations into October before without meeting them. What is different now is the deployment: the top line and the top power play are penciled in as his from the first day of camp, next to the best pure shooter he has played with as a professional. Whether the production follows is the question the Rangers most need answered after one of the worst seasons in franchise history.
For fantasy purposes, Lafreniere is a late-round pick with a real path to 70-plus points if the projected deployment holds through camp. First-unit power-play time was the missing piece of his profile, and flanking Zibanejad and Dorofeyev should lift his assist and power-play-point totals in particular. Confirm the line combinations in September before spending draft capital, but in keeper formats he is worth acquiring now, while the price still reflects the middle-six seasons.
