Chris Drury has his hands in a lot of cookie jars this offseason. K’Andre Miller has been in numerous trade rumors, and now we are starting to see some Alexis Lafreniere trade rumors, per Larry Brooks. Brooks is pushing that the Rangers are going to move on from K’Andre Miller, as he is probably their best trade chip outside of the big three of Panarin, Zibanejad, and Kreider. If there’s anything that would be considered a “lock,” it’s Miller getting traded. Though Lafreniere’s name is certainly out there.
The prevailing thought regarding both the K’Andre Miller and Alexis Lafreniere trade rumors is that Buffalo makes the best trade partner, but Drury also doesn’t want to send either within the conference. Regarding Miller, there are hopes he can land Bowen Byram, though that’s more of a lateral move. It’s fine, not Earth shattering.
As for Lafreniere, many have proposed JJ Peterka, and I think that would be a very big mistake. Trading Lafreniere isn’t off the table, but Peterka seems to be empty calorie scoring while Lafreniere could be poised to be the next Pavel Buchnevich in terms of trade regret.
Neither Miller nor Lafreniere should be considered untouchable. But it’s all about the right return and the right moves to follow. The reason why we harp on the Buchnevich trade is because the trade was atrocious and nothing was done to backfill his scoring. If Lafreniere is traded, so be it, but it’s the big picture that matters.
