Alexis Lafreniere signed a seven-year, $52.15 million contract with the New York Rangers on Friday. The contract, which has an average annual value of $7.45 million, will begin next season.

Lafreniere, speaking publicly for the first time since the deal was announced Friday night, said he was “happy to be done with it, and fired up to stay for seven years.’’ Currently playing in the final season of the two-year bridge deal he signed in 2023, he said it was nice to get a new contract settled early, so now he can focus on the season.