Remember when the Rangers were setting the stage for a run of superstardom unseen anywhere in the NHL since the Penguins' back-to-back draft acquisitions of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin?
Yeah ... about that.
Alexis Lafreniere, the No. 1 overall pick in the most recent NHL Draft, and Kaapo Kakko, the No. 2 overall pick in 2019 -- same order and selection spots as Crosby and Malkin -- haven't exactly set Madison Square Garden ablaze since their ballyhooed arrivals: Lafreniere's got five goals and six assists in 37 games as a rookie, and Kakko's got five goals and two assists in 30 games in his second season.
Now, there's no shame in either stat line. Lafreniere's 19, Kakko 20, and both are doing well to be in the league at all, much less taking regular shifts at that age.
And yet, it takes no more than a cursory glance at the pre-draft billings of both players to see that so much more was expected immediately. Lafreniere was hailed by some scouts and other evaluators as the sport's next special talent, in the mold of Crosby and Connor McDavid, a sentiment I always saw as over-the-top upon watching him at the World Junior Championships before his draft. The previous year, Kakko was seen as a 1A to Jack Hughes, with both having big forecasts, and it's telling that neither's done much, including Hughes across the Hudson River. (Though a somewhat bulked-up Hughes has at least shown flashes this season.)
Funny, but, to my eyes, no one's impressed more out of the past two draft classes quite like the Senators' 19-year-old Tim Stutzle, the No. 3 overall pick last summer. Despite playing for a terrible Ottawa team and nowhere near the supporting cast Lafreniere and Kakko have in New York, Stutzle's got six goals, 14 assists and 78 shots in 36 games. And within those figures have been some highlight-level beauties.
It'd be silly to bury any of these individuals, of course. But it's hardly premature to suggest the Crosby/McDavid comparisons for Lafreniere were way out of whack. The careers of those first two were shot out of a cannon, as is the case with almost all of the greats. Lafreniere has gone through interminable stretches of invisibility, including all five of his games vs. the Penguins, which wrought zero goals and zero assists.
If that holds true again tonight, when those teams meet again, I'm guessing not many in these parts would mind.
YOUR TURN: Did the Rangers get unlucky even while getting super-lucky?
