EAST RUTHERFORD | Three years ago, when Alexis Lafrenière played his first season in the NHL, evil tongues were saying that he should have stayed in the QMJHL and that he didn't have a season worthy of a first overall pick.
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However, Lafrenière had 21 points in 56 games. At the age of 18. It is not so bad. And in the following seasons, he increased his production a little each year.
Here he is, at 22 years old, in his fourth season with the New York Rangers and, unless he gets injured, he will certainly have the best season of his career. He can even think about reaching 50 points.
It may not yet live up to the expectations of his critics, but not all top picks are created equal and, most importantly, Lafrenière finds himself on a very talented team where everyone is fighting for playing time on the ice.
Good company
“It's going well, I'm definitely playing with good players who help me a lot and we have a lot of time on the ice,” agreed the left winger after leaving the outside ice at MetLife Stadium.
He's in good company indeed, as he stars alongside Vincent Trocheck and Artemi Panarin.
The latter also believes that the Quebecer from Saint-Eustache is really coming out of his cocoon this season.
“This year he is a different player. He is more confident, has more ice time and is growing day by day. It’s nice to see him working hard.”
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The Rangers also have Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejab, Jacob Trouba and Adam Fox in their ranks. This is an experienced and talented team and Lafrenière wants to get the best out of them.
“We have stars in the league and being able to play behind them and see how they perform on and off the ice helps a lot when you’re a young player.”
Arriving in the Big Apple at age 18 with the sole goal of earning a spot on the team, the man who had three successful seasons with the Rimouski Océanic of the QMJHL took his time to develop.
“I remained patient with the goal of learning and improving each season. Here I can learn from the best.”
Attitude
We'll repeat: no player develops at the same rate and that doesn't mean that a player who develops slowly won't explode. Throw tomatoes at us, but in the not-too-distant future, Lafrenière will be a very important piece of the Rangers puzzle.
And this will be possible because he has had time to develop and, above all, to adapt to his new professional reality.
“I’m more used to the speed of the National League now. You don't have much time to play the games, but you have time, you just have to be ready.
“The boys come at you so quickly. In the juniors I had a little more time and I was able to keep the puck for a long time, but here you have to make all the little plays.
Same situation
We could have put Lafrenière in touch with Juraj Slafkovlsy. After all, the young Slovakian was judged in much the same way in his first year with the Canadian, last season. What would Lafrenière have said to him if he had spoken to him?
“You have to be patient and try not to lose confidence, regardless of the ice time. The most important thing is to learn and improve, then things will get better and your confidence will increase. He played against us on Thursday night and I thought he was solid.”
Although he is in New York, Lafrenière knows what was said about him back home, but he has isolated himself from there to concentrate on his task.
“I try to stay away from social media, but sometimes things slip through.”
Just block out the noise during this time and it seems to be able to do that.