Cult of Hockey prospect series 2025: #14, Tommy Lafreniere
18 years old, 6’0″, 170 lbs., drafted #83 overall in 2025
The top of Edmonton’s prospect list is full of young guns, forwards with much promise, including today’s subject in our Cult of Hockey prospect countdown, #14 Tommy Lafreniere, a niftty attacking forward out of Kamloops.
The last time the Edmonton Oilers had this many young forwards at or near the top of their prospect rankings was 15 years ago, when optimism reigned in Oil Country. Fans in the fall of 2010 invested all kinds of hope in H.O.P.E., the group of prospects that included the acronym gang of hot shots Taylor Hall, Linus Omark, Magnus Paajarvi, and Jordan Eberle.
Three of the four were first round picks, one of them, Hall, drafted first overall, which gave him about an 80 per cent chance of being a top line attacker in the NHL, another, Paajarvi, taken tenth overall, which gave him a 50 per cent chance of becoming a Top 6 forward. Eberle and Omark, though smaller players, had oodles of skill and attacking smarts.
But not one of these players made a significant impact when it came to turning the Oilers into a winning team, not even the dynamic Hall, who is now with his seventh NHL team. All four players are still playing pro hockey, Paajarvi and Omark having carved out OK-to-great careers in Europe, Eberle being a regular Top 6 forward in his own NHL stops.
But the hope that H.O.P.E. brought to Oilers fan proved to be something of a false hope.
Young guns
Will this time be different? The large cluster of young gun forwards in the Oil’s Top 15 prospects this year has one forward with Paajarvi’s draft pedigree in Matt Savoie and another with close to Eberle’s draft status in Ike Howard, but there’s no supernova talent like Hall.
There is, however, some significant depth, players such as grinders David Lewandowski, William Nichol, and Connor Clattenburg, offensive aces like Savoie, Howard, Viljami Marjala, Quinn Hutson and Roby Jarventie, and two large two-way players, Maxim Berezkin, still in Russian, and Josh Samanski, just over from Germany.
They’ll all have great opportunity to step up in Edmonton given the team’s salary cap conundrum that sees the Oilers blessed with star talent who also happen to eat up a huge percentage of Edmonton’s overall cap space. The Oilers, as early as this October, are desperate for inexpensive young players who can step up, win jobs, and help the team’s brilliant core of stars win in the playoffs.
Where does Lafreniere, Edmonton’s first pick in the 2025 draft, fit in?
Every year this century in NHL drafts about 15 to 20 forwards have been taken in the third round of the draft, the same round Lafrrenier was drafted.
About one or two of those third-round forwards each year become OK-to-great NHLers, playing 400-plus games in the NHL, often in a Top Six capacity.
The best of the third rounders drafted this century has been Brad Marchand, Brayden Point, Patrick Sharp, Jake Quentzel, Bryan Rust, Pavel Buchnevich, Carter Verhaeghe, Anthony Cirelli, Adam Lowry, Alexander Killorn, and Adam Henrique.
Henrique was taken 82nd overall in 2008, and when I was watching a highlight reel of Lafreniere’s 2024-25 season, Henrique’s game came to mind. Lafreniere is good on his skates, but not the fastest, good with the puck, but not the slickest. He plays a smart, hard-working game and goes hard to the net with the intent to score, much like Henrique.
Of course, Henrique — one of the few forwards to be drafted in the third round to go on and have a good NHL career — is the exception to the rule. Most forwards drafted here fail to make it in the NHL. But there’s no saying that Lafreniere can’t also be the exception to the rule. After all, he was a low round pick (eighth round!) in the Western Hockey League bantam draft but he’s made the jump in that league. Maybe having learned he can defy the odds, he can apply those lessons and take an even bigger step.
Lafreniere
Here’s what he said this past February about his battle to overcome low draft status in the WHL: “Yeah, I think it was just kind of just an understanding of just how hard I need to work. I think it’s just kind of clicked inside of me that I need to do more than everyone else and keep pushing myself to be better. And so I just kind of gone the weights a little bit more and gained some weight and took a little bit of height, so it’s definitely helped a lot.”
Here’s some of what’s been said about him in the last few months both before and after the 2025 draft:
At The Hockey Writers, Dayton Reimer said in early June: “There are moments where he can get pushed off the puck and struggles to win battles against bigger, stronger players… Despite his good top-end speed, the Blazers’ rookie isn’t the cleanest skater, limiting some of his effectiveness without the puck… The things he does well, he does very well: he’s fast, tenacious, incredibly smart, makes creative passes through traffic, and has a strong, accurate shot.”
And Gabriel Foley of Recruit Scouting: “Will need to build out his frame and get a jump away from the puck, but his ability to think and act quick is impressive and impactful.”
And Neutral Zone scouting, which pegged him as a sixth or seventh round draft pick: “Despite a minus-33 rating on a struggling team, he produced 56 points in 68 games while playing significant minutes (20:14 TOI) and finished fourth on the roster in goals, assists, and points. He offers high-end hockey sense, strong puck skills, and a competitive motor, though his physical game, battle consistency, and defensive reliability remain areas requiring improvement.”
And Luke Sweeney of Dobber Prospects: “While not always physical on the puck, Lafreniere is adept at using deception to surprise carriers and strip pucks off them. He finished fourth on Kamloops in scoring in his first year there, though his minus-33 was second lowest on the team. However, this was a weaker team, and everyone on the roster was well into the negative.”
And Corey Pronman of The Athletic: “Lafrenière had a productive first full WHL season, being a point-per-game player for Kamloops. He’s a good skater with solid puck skills and vision. He creates offense on the move and inside the offensive zone. He was also a regular penalty killer for Kamloops. Lafrenière checks a lot of boxes, but as a smaller winger, there’s a lack of a special element in his game that you want when projecting his frame to the NHL.”
Most recently, Oilers prospect expert Bruce Curlock said of him: “The first thing you will notice about Lafrenière is his work ethic. He never gets cheated on any shift, no matter the situation or the zone. What makes this intriguing is that Lafrenière is an excellent skater. His acceleration and lateral movement is very quick. Lafrenière skating combined with his work ethic makes him a pain in the ass to play against. He’s a great defender in-zone and he’s an aggressive forechecker on offence.”
Expectation for 2025-26. In his draft year, Henrique put up 44 points in 66 games on a strong Windsor team. Lafreniere had 56 points in 68 games with a weak Kamloops team. In his Draft Plus-1 year, Henrique improved to 63 points in 56 games, playing on a championship team led by Taylor Hall and Ryan Ellis. If Lafreniere is to follow Henrique’s path, he’s got to get about 80 points in 68 WHL games this year, and help turn his struggling team into playoff contender.
Cult of Hockey prospect series 2025
Forwards: David Lewandowski (15th)
Dmen: Paul Fischer (16th), Nikita Yevseyev (18th), Asher Barnett (19th)
Goalies: Nathaniel Day (17th), Eemil Vinni (20th)
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