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RIMOUSKI, Quebec — The walls inside Sun Life Financial Coliseum in this eastern Quebec town along the Saint Lawrence River are swathed in tributes to the history of the Rimouski Oceanic, which entered the competitive ranks of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in 1995.
There are homages to former players like Vincent Lecavalier and Brad Richards, who in 2000 led the club to its only Memorial Cup, Canadian junior hockey’s ultimate prize. Naturally, there is plenty of space dedicated to Sidney Crosby, the superstar who played two seasons in Rimouski.
There’s a new player causing a stir among the locals — 17-year-old Alexis Lafreniere — and he will not even be eligible for the N.H.L. draft until 2020.
With a remarkable season and a standout international career, Lafreniere has been drawing comparisons to Crosby, whose talent belied his age 15 years ago before being drafted first over all by the Pittsburgh Penguins.
A native of Saint Eustache, Quebec, a suburb just west of Montreal, Lafreniere dismisses such comparisons. But in a proud province whose die-hard hockey fans have waited some time for the next French Canadian superstar, he has been forced to contend with some lofty expectations.
“He played in Rimouski, and I did too. That’s something people say,” Lafreniere said. “But I’m not Crosby. I just try to be myself and play my game. If I can watch Crosby play and do things like he do, for sure I will do it to try to get better, but I don’t think I’m Crosby.”
Like Crosby, Lafreniere was selected first over all by Rimouski in the Q.M.J.H.L. draft. And like Crosby, Lafreniere dominated the league at 16, being named the league’s top rookie last season as well as a first-team All-Star. His 42 goals last season were the most for a 16-year-old in the league since Crosby in 2003-4.
In February, Lafreniere went on a 12-game tear in which he collected eight goals and 23 points, the highest single-month point total in his junior hockey career. He finished the regular season last weekend with 105 points, tied for second in the league, behind only Rouyn-Noranda forward Peter Abbandonato, a player almost three and a half years Lafreniere’s senior.
“We haven’t felt this kind of response since Sidney,” the Oceanic owner Alex Tanguay said. “It’s a different kind of response, obviously with the social media and stuff, but you can definitely feel a vibe around him. Back then, if you wanted to see Sid play, you needed to drive down to Rimouski.
“Now in 2019, you can know what type of player Alexis is just by watching him on the internet or on TV. I guess it’s a different kind of response, but in a way the same vibe we felt almost 15 years ago.”
Any dominant 16-year-old hockey player naturally draws comparisons to Crosby, one of Canada’s most fabled native sons. But Lafreniere’s dominance has not been confined to the league colloquially known as the Q.
At the 2018 Hlinka-Gretzky Cup, the top international tournament for players 17 and younger, Lafreniere tied for the scoring lead despite being the second-youngest player on his team. He sealed Canada’s tournament victory with two goals, including the winner, in the final against Sweden.
In December and January, he was the youngest player to compete at the International Ice Hockey Federation world junior championship, for players 20 and younger. In part because of injuries to other players, Lafreniere became the ninth youngest to compete for Canada at the annual holiday tournament, behind names like Wayne Gretzky, Connor McDavid, Eric Lindros and, of course, Crosby.
But Lafreniere’s world junior showcase was not exactly a grand coronation. Canada, the host nation, lost in the quarterfinal to Finland, the eventual champion. After a third-period benching against Switzerland in group play, Lafreniere encountered the first real adversity of his young career. He responded with a goal against the Czech Republic in the next game.
“This goal was probably one of the biggest of my career in front of so much people,” he said. “At World Juniors, scoring a goal is really special.”
The Rimouski coach and general manager, Serge Beausoleil, added: “In many ways, it helped him. It’s one of the first times that he faced adversity. He has to react to that. That’s really good for him. He’s a tremendous player, but he has room for improvement.”
Aside from their biographical similarities, Lafreniere and Crosby differ drastically in style. Whereas Crosby’s legend was built on subtlety and the facility with which he makes the extraordinary appear ordinary, Lafreniere is more the showman. He appears most in his element driving offensive play with the puck on his stick. It’s a style he adopted as a child emulating his favorite player, the Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane.
A fastidious student of the game, Lafreniere can still describe a personal favorite pass from Kane to then-teammate Marian Hossa.
“The pass to Hossa,” he recalled. “He spin around and back door. That was pretty sick.”
Lafreniere is expected to be a prominent player in next season’s world junior tournament in the Czech Republic. By then, every game he plays will draw the kind of scrutiny reserved for a player expected to go No. 1 in the N.H.L. draft.
The last Quebecois player selected first over all was goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury in 2003. The last nongoalie from Quebec to go first was Lecavalier in 1998. That’s a startling drought for a province known as the proving ground for icons like Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau, Gilbert Perreault, Guy Lafleur, Mario Lemieux, Ray Bourque and Patrick Roy.
Lafreniere would be thrilled to bring Quebec back to the top of the N.H.L. draft board.
“Just to be drafted is a dream,” he said. “If I had the chance to go first over all, that would be something really special.”
But with plenty of hockey to play before the 2020 N.H.L. draft, Rimouski’s lively fans are looking forward to a few more indelible moments with their young superstar. Lafreniere’s agent announced in February that he would return to the Oceanic for the 2019-20 season after reports that he had been approached by professional clubs in Europe.
“He’s our best player at 17 years old,” Beausoleil said. “At times, we’re really demanding because we love him. It’s good to see that he has something to learn. That’s a long process.”
