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 instantaneously at every other level.
The extra time it took in the NHL may have prolonged it even more.
“It’s a good league — the best league in the world — and you’ve got to adjust,” Lafreniere said. “Just tried to trust the process and play your game and have a good attitude. Stay patient.”
After scoring 28 goals and dishing 29 assists in 82 games last season, in addition to posting 14 points in 16 playoff contests, Lafreniere didn’t just pick up where he left off on Wednesday; he set the bar in Game 1 of 82.
Scooping up a leading feed from Panarin in the first period, Lafreniere skated in toward the net before Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson attempted to make a sliding defensive play.
He pulled the puck back, as if it were on a string, to avoid Pettersson and whipped it short side past Pittsburgh goalie Tristan Jarry — patience, awareness and control on full display.
“It’s a high-end move,” Laviolette said on Friday. “To be coming in on the forehand like that, to have the patience. I think the patience is the biggest thing. He has the patience and the ability to pull that off. I thought his confidence increased the entire year last year. To the point in the playoffs, he pulled it off two or three times.
“He pulled off a move like that, one where you pick up your eyes a little bit and say, ‘That was a pretty special move.’ That one the other night was, as well. To me, that shows confidence in a player’s game, in his ability.
“I think that built last year where he felt going into the playoffs he could make those types of plays and he did. Game 1, he went back to it.”
A pending restricted free agent with arbitration rights next summer, Lafreniere said he’s not thinking about his next contract at all — just playing hockey and having fun.
The Rangers will want to be thinking about it sooner rather than later.
Those kinds of moves don’t come cheap nowadays.
“I love it here,” Lafreniere said of playing with the Rangers. “Great place to be. Obviously, great team every year. Great teammates, great city.”