by When Alexis Lafreniere made the jump from the Saint-Eustache Vikings of Quebec’s U18 development league to the Rimouski Oceanic of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, the then 15-year-old was living away from home for the first time.
After putting up 83 points in 36 games in the QMAAA in 2016-17, Lafreniere scored 80 points in 60 games in his rookie season in the QMJHL.
The statistics speak for themselves and show that despite a drastic life change, Lafreniere didn’t need much of an adjustment period on the ice.
A look at a highlight package from Lafreniere’s QMJHL days shows the Quebec native played with so much confidence.
This is the Lafreniere who won opening night on the ice in Pittsburgh, where the newly minted 23-year-old showcased the high-end skills that earned him the No. 1 overall pick in 2020, and who defied everyone during his breakout campaign Evening interspersed last season.
Is he making these moves now because he’s gained enough confidence to do so, or has he figured out how to translate that part of his game to the NHL level?
“A little bit of both,” Lafreniere told The Post on his birthday Friday. “It’s like instincts. This isn’t really something I say, “I’ll do this,” when you’re sitting before the game. It comes with the game.”
Lafreniere credited his immediate success to the players he played with in Rimouski — Samuel Dove-McFalls, Jimmy Huntington and Justin Pare — just as he did with Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck last season as his game took off.
It took a few games or a few weeks for him to feel 100 percent like himself on the ice in the QMJHL, Lafreniere said, noting that he became more comfortable making plays as the game slowed down for him.
It may have taken him four seasons to get to that spot in the NHL, but Lafreniere is there now.
Perhaps it was a shock that his game didn’t immediately translate to the NHL.
At every other level it was almost instantaneous.
The extra time it took in the NHL may have made it even longer.
“It’s a good league – the best league in the world – and you have to adapt,” Lafreniere said. “I just tried to trust the process, play your game and have a good attitude. Stay patient.”
After scoring 28 goals and 29 assists in 82 games and scoring 14 points in 16 playoff games last season, Lafreniere didn’t just pick up where he left off on Wednesday; He set the bar in Game 1 of 82.
Lafreniere grabbed a lead from Panarin in the first period and ran toward the net before Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson tried to make an evasive defensive play.
He pulled the puck back as if it were on a string to avoid Pettersson and flicked it briefly past Pittsburgh goaltender Tristan Jarry – patience, awareness and control on full display.
“It’s a high-end move,” Laviolette said Friday. “Being so on the forehand, having the patience. I think patience is the biggest thing. He has the patience and ability to pull this off. I thought his confidence increased throughout last year. He made it to the playoffs two or three times.
“He made the kind of move that makes you look up a little and say, ‘That was a very special move.’ That was the other evening too. For me it shows confidence in a player’s game, in his abilities.
“I think that developed last year when he felt like he could make plays like that in the playoffs, and he did. Game 1, he came back to it.”
Lafreniere, who is set to become a restricted free agent with arbitration rights next summer, said he isn’t thinking about his next contract at all – just playing hockey and having fun.
The Rangers will want to think about it sooner rather than later.
Such moves are no longer cheap these days.
“I love it here,” Lafreniere said of playing for the Rangers. “Great place to be. Of course a great team every year. Great teammates, great city.”
