Young gun Lafreniere has legit shot at Team Canada: Hunter
COLWOOD — If you think Alexis Lafreniere is at the world junior team tryout camp here to merely grab experience for future years, you may want to pay attention to what Tim Hunter was saying Tuesday.
The world juniors is often a tournament dominated by 19 year olds. Lafreniere, a forward with the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Rimouski Oceanic, turned 17 in October.
Because of his late birth date, he isn’t eligible for the NHL Entry Draft until 2020.
Lafreniere does have 17 goals and 54 points through 31 games this season with Rimouski, after putting up 42 goals and 80 points last year as a 16-year-old with the Oceanic. And Hunter maintains the six-foot-one, 192-pound left-handed shooter is definitely in the mix for this coming worlds.
“He’s capable because he’s good enough. We like what he brings as a player,” said Hunter, the former Vancouver Canucks’ tough guy whose day job is coaching the Moose Jaw Warriors of the WHL. “He doesn’t play like a young player. Real smart. Plays heavy, plays hard. He doesn’t have those young player moments, where he forgets his assignments and what have you.
“We like him. He’s capable of playing and making this team. He has to play to his identity over the next three or four days and we’ll see how things shake out for him.”
According to the Hockey Canada world junior media guide, Team Canada hasn’t had a 17-year-old since 2015, when forwards Connor McDavid and Lawson Crouse both made that side.
DAY TO DAY DUO
Injured forwards Gabe Vilardi (back) and Jaret Anderson-Dolan (wrist) didn’t skate with Hunter’s group on Tuesday morning, but Hunter was hopeful that they would go on the ice on their own later in the day.
“It’s a day-to-day thing,” Hunter said. “We’ll see how it works out. Jaret has his cast off and he’s been skating and feeling the puck. And Gabe has come along and we’ll see how it goes with him.
“They wouldn’t be here if we didn’t believe that they could make this team.”
TOUGH CUTS TO COME
Hunter said he had no timeline for cuts this week. Team Canada wraps up a three-game series against a U Sports all-star squad with a 2 p.m. game on Friday at the Q Centre, and they could wait until after that game to get down to their 23-man roster. They could also make moves throughout the week.
“We want them to play and play to their identity and make our decisions tough. It’ll be ‘OK, maybe we need to look at another game with this guy,’” Hunter said. “There’s no plan just yet. It’s going to be a tough decisions when we make the releases of anybody.”