Former 1st overall pick to be a healthy scratch Thursday night

The writing seemed to be on the wall Wednesday when New York Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant had four players practicing on the fourth line. One of them was going to be made a healthy scratch, and we now know that will be Alexis Lafreniere, the 1st overall pick in the 2020 NHL draft.

Lafreniere has 5 goals and 17 points in 36 games this season. Not awful, but it appears his game just isn't where the Rangers want it to be.

"He doesn't seem to accomplish much out there with or without the puck," an NHL scout covering the Rangers told The Athletic. "When you watch him play it's hard to find him out there, has little impact on the outcome. I don't know if it's lack of confidence but his processing seems a little bit of a step behind."

Gallant indicated he wasn't happy with Lafreniere's game on Wednesday, but made no implication that he would end up sitting.

"Laffy has gotten some chances to play with good people and he's played well at times, but it's inconsistent," Gallant said on Wednesday. "And again, there was a bunch of them (that were bad on Tuesday) night. So Laffy is getting maybe knocked down today in practice. Not saying he's going to be there tomorrow. I don't know where he's going to be tomorrow. Sometimes it's a wake-up call for the kids."

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