CANTLON: AS EXPECTED, RANGERS SELECT LAFRENIERE 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – The New York Rangers made their first overall selection in the NHL Entry Draft for the first time in 54 years, and just like then, the pick came from the province of Quebec, as the team chose Alexis Lafrenière, the overall best player in his draft class.

Expectations for Lafrenière are that he will make a major impact on the Rangers franchise.

“It’s a big honor for me,” Lafrenière said in an interview on NBCSN. “The New York Rangers are a big organization. great history and great players.”

The broad smile on his face could be seen in New York all the way from Montreal when he was handed his Rangers jersey and hat by his father, Hugo, and his mother, Nathalie, with his older sister, Lori-Jane, all present.

Because of a red zone COVID alert for Montreal, the Quebec Health Ministry asked residents to stay home. The family had hoped to celebrate his selection in the draft in a suite at the world-famous Queen Elizabeth Hotel downtown Montreal, but that was out.

“I’m just (so happy) throwing a Rangers jersey on. It’s amazing growing up dreaming of being drafted by the NHL; to just having an NHL jersey, but especially a NY Rangers jersey. It’s pretty special for me.”

As a result of the worldwide COVID pandemic, the NHL Entry Draft, which was scheduled to be at the Bell Centre in downtown Montreal in June, was canceled. It robbed Lafrenière, and for that matter, all the other draft picks, of what would have been a thunderous ovation from the fans of Montreal. Lafrenière now joins 11 other Quebec-born players to be drafted first overall in NHL Draft history.

He was mindful of the special place he now holds in that area of Quebec hockey history.

”It means a lot to me to represent Quebec and Quebec City, it’s something really special for me.”

The Rangers last garnered the number one overall selection in the NHL Draft in 1965, a much different hockey landscape back then.

There were only six teams then and the Rangers drafted, then the second Quebec-born player at number one, centerman, Andre Veilleux, from the Trois-Rivieres Reds of the Quebec Junior A Hockey League (QJAHL).

He played just 16 games the following year for the Rosemont Bombers (MMJHL), and never played pro hockey and never left Quebec, as did the first player drafted from Quebec the year before.

That won’t happen this time in Lafreniere’s case.

The elite class Lafrenière joins include; Marc-Andre Fleury (2003-Pittsburgh), Vinny Lecavalier (1998-Tampa Bay), Alexandre Daigle (1993-Ottawa), Pierre Turgeon (1987-Buffalo), Mario Lemieux (1984-Pittsburgh), Guy Lafleur (1971-Montreal), Gilbert Perreault (1970-Buffalo), Rejean Houle (Montreal-1969), the late Michel Plasse (Montreal-1968), Andre Veilleux (Rangers-1965) and the late Claude Gauthier (Detroit-1964).

The Rangers drafted the 6’1, 195-lb left-winger from the QMJHL Rimouski Oceanic. Rimouski is located in the Gaspe region of Northern Quebec and was the same junior team of the Penguins, Sidney Crosby. He is the third Rimouski player to be taken number one overall joining Crosby and Lecavalier.

Lafrenière helped Canada win WJC Gold back in January, nine months ago in the Czech Republic where he was also named the tournament MVP and earned his selection on the first team.

In just 53 games last season he had 35 goals, a league-best 77 assists, and 112 points for the Oceanic, and won his second consecutive Jean Beliveau Trophy, crossing the century mark for the second consecutive season of his three-year major junior career.

The trophy room at his home has a slew of additions. He was named the best player in all of Canadian junior hockey for a second season in a row, the QMJHL Michel Briere MVP Trophy, and was a first-team All-Star selection.

His first junior year after being the Q’s number one overall selection from the St. Eustache Vikings he had 80 points in 60 games and was on the All-Rookie team, captured the silver medal on the Canadian team at the World Hockey U-17 tournament and was the QMJHL Offensive Rookie of the Year (Michel Bergeron Trophy) winner.

TSN’s Bob MacKenzie announced on Twitter in mid-August that Lafrenière’s junior career was over.

“Alexis Lafrenière will not be reporting to Rimouski training camp this fall and will not be going to Europe to play. He’s training in Boisbriand (home of the QMJHL Blainville-Boisbriand Armada), plans to be drafted, and report to his NHL team in November and play 20-21 in the NHL.”

Lafrenière is a St. Eustache, Quebec native, 25 miles northwest of Montreal, so he won’t be seen at the Sun Life Financial Center in Rimouski again as an active player.

He has been training at the Rousseau Sports Center (named by a Quebec sports company, not for former Rangers and Canadiens great Bobby Rousseau) near his home, which houses the QMJHL Blainville-Boisbriand Armada.

Getting a player with LaFreniere’s talent makes it an exciting day for the Rangers organization.

Lafreniere, like everybody else by the time training camp opens, will have gone 10 months without competitive game action. While it is very rare for a number one pick to spend time in the minors, Lafrenière’s last competitive time on the ice was March 8th, at the Centre Gervais Auto Arena in a Shawinigan 4-2 win over the Shawinigan Cataractes, where he had three assists and was voted the game’s First Star. It might benefit him to spend some time in Hartford.

The date of the NHL and AHL seasons to start and the number of games that will be played is still very much up in the air though Commissioner Gary Bettman announced that January 1st would start the season with the NHL Outdoor Classic.

The wise course is to get him adjusted to the pro hockey game and get him the solid minutes he needs to play. The Wolf Pack could provide him with that. The team could then recall him to New York when they feel the time is right.

The drafting of Lafrenière is likely the last nail in the coffin of the failed Lias Andersson experiment, the one-time seventh overall selection in 2017.

Andersson is on loan with HV71 (Sweden-SHL) and is off to a solid start to the regular season that began last weekend.

Lafrenière to the Wolf Pack is highly unlikely, but Hartford would be a good first step in what could be a very long, standout pro hockey career.

The Rangers had another Lafrenière in team history in the late 1980s in Jason Lafreniere (no relation) who played half a season (38 games) in 1988-89 after playing with the Denver Rangers (IHL) their farm team then, for the first half of the year. He was traded by the Quebec Nordiques to the Rangers on August 1, 1989, along with defenseman Normand Rochefort for Bruce Bell, Jari Gronstrand, Walt Poddubny, and a 4th round draft choice that became former New Haven Nighthawk Eric Dubois, whose son Pierre-Luc plays for the Columbus Blue Jackets,