Image credit: CFJC Today

By Marty Hastings

TOMMY TIME

Lafreniere emerging as one to watch for Kamloops Blazers

Sep 9, 2024 | 6:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — Tommy Lafreniere was co-MVP of the Under-18 Canadian Sport School Hockey League last season, racking up 27 goals and 58 points in 30 games for Yale Hockey Academy.

Making the accomplishment even more notable – it was his 16-year-old season.

Lafreniere — a 5-foot-11 forward who was born in Montreal, grew up in Whistler and summers on Hornby Island — carried momentum into the WHL preseason, tallying three goals and five points in two games this past weekend for the Kamloops Blazers.

Kamloops picked Lafreniere in the eighth round of the 2022 WHL Prospects Draft, nabbing a forward whose 5-foot-5 frame was of concern to some clubs, according to Blazers’ head coach Shaun Clouston.

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The Blazers made the difficult decision to assign Lafreniere to Yale after an impressive training camp in Kamloops in 2023, but Clouston said the move appears to have paid dividends.

“Players and parents and agents quite often want a player to be here [in the WHL],” Clouston said. “It showed a lot of maturity and resilience. That experience he had of being a dominant player, a heavily relied upon player, gave him a lot of confidence and he carried that confidence right into games with us last year, through the summer and into pre-season this year.”