I think they have to match regardless because Laf is a former 1OA pick and letting him go for a 1st and 2nd that'll probably be late is an unwise move
Unless you reach the 4 1sts range then you have to match I would think

I’d love to see them have to pay him that kind of money. They’ll probably buyout Goodrow though.

That'd be spicy. On one hand, I don't think Laf has done nearly enough to come close to warranting that type of pay-day (the $6.25mil that you mention, much less the $8+mil). But the optics of losing your former #1 pick when it seems like he's picking up steam is probably PRETTY negative haha. Not to mention a 1st and 2nd as brought up by zk97 above isn't NEARLY the same value as the #1OA.

I'd just grab the popcorn and watch the chaos ensue.

Similarly to what happened to Marc Bergevin, it's a cap question for the Rangers, not an assets question. $8.4M is around the point where the Rangers may not actually be able to match it unless they trade someone like Chytil.

Goodrow would be bought out.
I wouldn't pay Laffy 6 M regardless if I'm Drury or some other GM.

at that point if they really want to keep laf they can trade trocheck because laf-chytil-kakko would be the second line

This isn't a question of would you want to. The question is if they HAVE to. The Canes have well enough cap space to theoretically offer-sheet Lafreniere in the $8.4M range.

Good luck with that. The Rangers gave Trocheck a NMC!

ngl if they can get a 1st for him they should do it imo. Better to cut your losses now than risk him continuing to disappoint

Good for them 👏 I have honestly stopped caring.

Pure nonsense

i would let him go. rosters good enough and you need cap space. hes veering towards a bust

If you match you better have Chytil signed already because I'd offer sheet him the next day.

And better have Miller signed before that

I think there are other ways around this hypothetical than paying to dump a useful (if slightly expensive) player in Goodrow.

First, Key Miller gets a bridge deal, not 8x$5.75M. I get the idea that you want to lock him up long term at a good value but you've got a 20 man roster here - it's untenable. Give him a bridge deal at $2.5-3M and all of a sudden you have an extra $3M hanging around.

Second: Filip Chytil or Ryan Lindgren - pick one. I'd lean towards keeping Lindgren over Chytil, but I think they're both attractive assets that you can flip out for a strong return. If you trade Chytil, you can probably sign a Lars Eller-type in FA to slide in as your 3C for $3M or less; LD is a little more dicey because the players you can get at a cheaper AAV than Lindgren aren't necessarily great options (Dmitry Kulikov, Erik Gustafsson, maybe Carson Soucy??)

Personally though, I just don't match for Lafreniere if someone throws a $6M+ AAV at him. Does it sting losing him for just a 1st/3rd combo? Yeah, but at the end of the day I'd rather work around that than pay $6M+ to a 40-50 point winger. Trust me as an Islanders fan - you're not going to love it.

The biggest problem for the Rangers would be cap space, and while they could just move Goodrow, it’s easier said than done. First of all, he is signed for 4 years after this year, albeit at a reasonable cap hit, that leads into the second problem. The Rangers wouldn’t be able to move him to half the league with Goodrow’s M-NTC, and the other half of the league could have a couple of problems: not enough cap space to take on Goodrow, no need/want for Goodrow, or are just not in a position to take on Goodrow. And to top it all off, the Rangers would have send, more than likely a 2nd rounder at minimum, or negotiate a better trade that might help both sides.

If the Rangers are unable to move Goodrow, who would they move to match the offer sheet to Lafrenière? Good luck finding a team willing to take on either Kreider or Trocheck, assuming they are even willing to waive their respective NMC. The Rangers aren’t going to move any of Zibanejad, Panarin, Fox, Trouba, or Shesterkin either, so that narrows down the list quite a bit. If my math is correct, moving Kakko or Lindgren would not provide the required cap space to stay in the green.

Realistically, assuming that Lafrenière signs a 6.25x1 offer sheet, the cap ceiling goes up by 1mil, and every one of the other contracts signed are the same as the ones currently posted, the Rangers would need to clear 3.358691mil to be cap compliant and have $0 in cap space. Assuming that is all true, one of only Goodrow, Miller, or Chytil would need to be moved to match that offer sheet. Miller is already out of the equation with how well he has developed, and Chytil is likely to be out of the equation as well. The Rangers only real hope in keeping Lafrenière would be to dump Goodrow, and as I have already said, Goodrow will not make it that easy. It would wiser for the Rangers to just bite the bullet and take the first and third, rather than matching the offer sheet, and try to resign one of Tarasenko or Kane instead.

This is just using the numbers provided in this AGM, however I think both Miller and Chytil likely get a bit more, so the Rangers would have an even harder time matching a Lafreniere offer sheet.

Doubt Miller goes that cheap even on a bridge