Exclusive | Alexis Lafreniere finally looks like the highlight-reel top pick Rangers envisioned
When Alexis Lafreniere made the jump from the Saint-Eustache Vikings of Quebec’s U18 development league to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Rimouski Oceanic, 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 posted 80 points in 60 games in his rookie season in the QMJHL.The statistic speaks for itself, revealing that Lafreniere didn’t need much of an on-ice adjustment period despite a drastic life change. One look at any highlight package from Lafreniere’s QMJHL days, and it is apparent that the Quebec native played with so much certainty in himself. That is the Lafreniere who took the ice Opening Night in Pittsburgh, where the newly turned 23-year-old showed off the high-end skill that got him drafted first overall in 2020 and began to come through on a nightly basis during his breakout campaign last season. So 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 at the NHL level? “A little bit of both,” Lafreniere told The Post on his birthday on Friday.
“It’s like instincts.That’s not really something I’m like, ‘I’ll do that’ when you’re sitting before the game.
It comes with the game.” Lafreniere credited the players he played with in Rimouski — Samuel Dove-McFalls, Jimmy Huntington and Justin Pare — for his immediate success, just like he did last season with Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck when his game started to take off. It took a couple games or a couple weeks for him to feel 100 percent like himself on the ice in the QMJHL, Lafreniere said, noting that he began to feel more comfortable making plays as the game slowed down for him. It may have taken four seasons to get to that place in the NHL, but Lafreniere is there now. Perhaps it was a shock when his game didn’t translate to the NHL right away.It had almost instantaneo...