Alexis Lafreniere hoping to find breakout Rangers form after being reunited with former line

For Alexis Lafreniere, the start of the 2024-25 season was an extension of last year. He followed up a career-high 57 points with at least one in six of his opening seven games.

He landed the seven-year deal that ensured he’d remain a key piece of the Rangers core well into the future. There was plenty of continuity — skating alongside Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck — for the 23-year-old, too.

Everything had collided to create the opening act of a breakout season.

But since that four-goals-in-seven-games stretch to open his fifth NHL season, Lafreniere has managed just four across the last 17.

His struggles aren’t isolated — the Rangers have started to crater, and their top nine continuing to sputter forced head coach Peter Laviolette to shuffle lines, mix different pieces together and stray from what worked earlier this season and with last year’s Presidents’ Trophy-winning group.