The Edmonton Oilers have greatly expanded their prospect pool in the WHL with the 2025 NHL draft. With their first selection of the draft coming in the third round they chose Kamloops Blazer forward, Tommy Lafreniere.
Lets take a brief look at the WHLer’s game.
Who is Tommy Lafreniere?
| Position | Handedness | Height | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| C | Right | 6’0” | 174lbs |
The 2007-born forward originally comes from St-Sauver Quebec, but grew up in the Yale Hockey Academy system. Initially drafted by Kamloops in the eighth round of the 2022 WHL draft after an notable season with Yale’s U15 program.
The 6’0” forward then went on to play a season with their U17, and one with their U18 program. The Blazers forward also appeared with Kamloops for nine games last season. The 2024–2025 season was the Quebec products first full time season in the WHL.
Lafreniere’s on-ice production
In his true rookie season with Kamloops, Lafreniere found moderate success as a top of the lineup type of player. In that position he potted 56 points with 24 of them being goals.
He also found regular shifts with a TOI of 20:14 per game. The forward was also a prominent special teams contributor for the rebuilding Blazers as he averaged 3:25 of power play time, and 2:09 of penalty kill time per game.
| Year | Draft Relative | League | Team | GP | G | A | P | Playoff GP | Playoff G | Playoff A | Playoff P |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022–23 | D-2 | U17 | Yale Hockey Academy Prep | 34 | 9 | 30 | 39 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 7 |
| 2022-2023 | D-2 | U18 | Yale Hockey Academy Prep | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023–24 | D-1 | U18 | Yale Hockey Academy Prep | 30 | 27 | 31 | 58 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| 2023-2024 | D-1 | WHL | Kamloops Blazers | 9 | 2 | 2 | 4 | ||||
| 2024–25 | D+0 | WHL | Kamloops Blazers | 68 | 24 | 32 | 56 |
Lafreniere is a swiss-army knife for the Blazers. As Lafreniere gets more comfortable at the WHL level, and as a top player for his team, expect his points total to increase as he gains more confidence, poise, and offensive instincts.
Lafreniere’s strengths
Lafreniere plays a heavy two-way forward’s game which makes him an asset in all three zones of play. Specifically his game is highlighted by a high compete level, strong defensive senses and hints of playmaking.
Compete level
The forward’s compete level is defined by high pace, energy, and disruption/relentlessness. In short he rarely takes a shift off, and this articulates higher end play engagement, endurance, and quality position responsibility.
All of these elements of Lafreniere’s compete level are best exemplified in defensive transition.
This is where the Quebec-born forward implements quality defensive pressure through unique angles of attack, that mesh well with his situational awareness and high pace game to actively disrupt opponent breakouts on the regular.
This then combines with a relentless pokecheck that ultimately make him hard to ignore. This transitional disruption also helps explains why the WHLer starts 28% of all of his shifts in the neutral zone.
In offensive transition this high compete level is shown through his frequent lane creation in breakout, manipulation upon zone entry, and net crashing in rush play. This sheer hustle, and intensity in transition generate a significant amount of Lafreniere’s 2.3 scoring chances per game.
In sustained play support aptitude in second efforts (cycle initiations, and pressure absorption), and notable hustle/intensity in offensive zone battles.
Defensive senses
Throughout Lafreniere’s entire game the forward employs good defensively responsible positioning, instincts, awareness, and play anticipation which all hint at a quality hockey IQ. These overarching elements also explain his 2:09 of penalty-kill time along with his lowly 0.18 error leading to goal mark.
These defensive instincts are best exemplified through his high motor, which has him frequently engaging with opponents, and implementing a high rate of stick tie ups, poke checks, and an frequently active stick.
This hints at quality risk assessment, analysis, and an above average scanning and play processing ability by the young forward.
In the defensive zone, Lafreniere also employs good play anticipation which can be shown through his lane awareness space management, and defensive poise both in transition and defensive zone play.
Playmaking
Lafreniere’s aforementioned compete, pace, awareness, and sheer effort level make him an effective playmaker at the WHL level. These previously mentioned elements are also aided by his play processing, growing creativity, and play ID ability, which all hints at above average on-ice vision.
This vision and play creation is also notable off-puck as Lafreniere shows impeccable timing, a fight for good body positioning, and the ability to create space even when it is crowded. The one downside is Lafreniere just needs to do this more consistently.
Part of his playmaking is also fueled by his moderate skating which employs decent posture, okay mechanics, a long extension, okay edgework and notable balance. This balance and underlying grit/ toughness allow Lafreniere to serve as a net-front presence while being a higher end in-close playmaker/facilitator.
This in-close finisher is best exemplified by his expected goals for rate of 0.39.
Lafreniere’s areas of improvement
Most of Lafreniere’s short comings are evident on the offensive side of his game, and revolve around puck skills, and finishing ability.
Puck skills/offensive instincts
Puck skills wise the Blazers forward needs significant growth in terms of his handling mechanics, pass selection, and some decison making.
In offensive transition Lafreniere shows problematic handling where he’s often prone to over-handling and poorer pressure absorption, and below average pass receptions. This helps explain his 5.7 give aways per game, to only 4.2 takeaways.
Additionally his decision making proves to be an area of needed growth as Lafreniere’s deke success rate stands at only 66%, and his pass placement, and ability leaves much to be desired with an 86% accuracy.
The biggest indication of his decision making is rushed shots from the outside, and hints at below average shot selection, especially when there are better options available hinting at limitations of offensive poise. These struggles are communicated in his low 13% conversion rate on scoring chances.
What compounds this inefficiency is on average he takes 4.5 shots a game, where only 69% of them even hit the net, which is especially surprising considering his prominence as a net front creator.
These puck management challenges mixed in with limited finishing can challenge the momentum of and slow the pace of a Blazer breakout and offensive pressure generation. His overall playmaking ideas show promise, but they do lack some execution at points.
Other minor barriers include power both in physicality (hit effectiveness, muscle mass, and frequency), and skating (power generation, and jankier stride recovery). Both of which should improve with age and experience.
Lafreniere’s next steps
The WHL product will return to the Blazers next season no question about it. He has the finer details, the effort level, and the raw skill to be a point per game player at the major junior level. Another season and further development of his offensive instincts, poise and execution will further this idea.
It is quite possible that Lafreniere is a prime WHL breakout candidate for the 2025–26 season. Especially with the chemistry he shows with Chicago Blackhawks third rounder, Nathan Behm, expect both forwards to have more productive seasons next year with Kamloops further along in their rebuild.
Two to three seasons from now Lafreniere could be a player who makes the jump to NCAA hockey before the AHL as well. Only time will tell.
Projection with the Oilers
As it sits the Blazers forward shows good promise as a quality checking, defensive first shut down forward. This is the exact type of player that could be the next generation’s Zach Hyman for the Oilers roster, a defensively responsible gritty forward with some hidden playmaking aptitude.
With improvements to Lafreniere’s finishing and offensive instincts he could be a quality complimentary piece in most situations.
Potential: Likely a top nine ceiling if everything goes right.
NHL ETA: four years
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