The New York Rangers will go into 2023-24 with plenty of questions about their future. Chris Kreider, Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad are all over 30 and any given season could be their last as a contending team. Former first-rounders Filip Chytil, Kaapo Kakko and Alexis Lafreniere have been deployed as a unit for over a season, but need to bring their game to a new level to extend New York’s title window. On Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live, New York Post Rangers’ beat reporter Mollie Walker and host Frank Seravalli discussed the future of the ‘Kid Line.’
Frank Seravalli: When it comes to next season and you look at the Kid Line, for instance, and the expectation that they will continue to build their game, how long of a leash do you think those guys have? If they’re not living up to expectations next season can we expect to see some change there? Are those discussions even possible when all three players are in line for contracts?
Mollie Walker: Definitely. Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko, especially, need to prove what they can do in this league.
I’m very curious to see how Peter Laviolette organizes things. Gerard Gallant obviously went with those two and Filip Chytil, the Kid Line, as a secondary-scoring line. Something tells me Laviolette may want them to be more of a checking line or a matchups line. Gallant wasn’t much of a matchups guy. The Rangers need more of that.
I’m not so sure how sold I was on the Kid Line. They bled scoring chances at times; it’s probably time to see if they can make it separately. It’s up to them to do something with that opportunity and prove they can be top-six contributors, Lafreniere and Kakko in particular.
I’m very curious to see what Peter Laviolette can get out of them, especially Alexis Lafreniere. There are a lot of eyeballs on them this upcoming season, and the onus is on Laviolette to find out what kind of player he is. The leash is definitely getting shorter and shorter every season.
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