Lafreniere was selected with the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft by the New York Rangers after a standout career in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

The left wing from St-Eustache, Quebec led the QMJHL with 112 points (35 goals, 77 assists) in 52 games for Rimouski in 2019-20. He also scored 10 points (four goals, six assists) in five games at the 2020 IIHF World Junior Championship, helping Canada to a first-place finish and earning tournament MVP honors.

Two years earlier, Lafreniere helped Canada finish first at the Hlinka-Gretzky tournament.

Lafreniere was named the QMJHL's most valuable player for a second consecutive season. He also won Canadian Hockey League player of the year award for the second season in a row. Lafreniere and Sidney Crosby (2004 and 2005, also for Rimouski) are the only players to win the award twice. He was the first Rimouski player to be ranked No. 1 on Central Scouting's final North American skater list since Crosby in 2005 and the first Quebec-born skater to be taken with the first pick since the Tampa Bay Lightning selected Vincent Lecavalier in the 1998 NHL Draft.

In three QMJHL seasons, Lafreniere scored 297 points (114 goals, 183 assists) in 173 games. Among players with three seasons or fewer in the league since 2000-01, Lafreniere is fourth in points, after Claude Giroux (321), Olivier Proulx (314) and Vitali Abramov (301).

NOTES & TRANSACTIONS

• CHL Rookie of the Year (2018)
• QMJHL All-Rookie Team (2018)
• CHL Player of the Year (2019, 2020)
• QMJHL First All-Star Team (2019, 2020)
• QMJHL Player of the Year (2019, 2020)