Wendell Cruz-Imagn ImagesThe groundwork for Alexis Lafrenière’s recent surge was laid during a lunch.
Before the 2025-26 season began, Mike Sullivan grabbed lunch with Lafrenière, and on top of getting to know each other, they discussed Lafrenière’s individual game.
Prior to Sullivan's arrival, Lafrenière had played under three head coaches with the New York Rangers. Despite his raw talent, David Quinn, Gerard Gallant, or Peter Laviolette seemed to be able to unleash the 2020 first-overall pick’s full potential.
Sullivan, knowing that Lafrenière’s skill wasn’t the issue, gave him advice during their lunch together that has been a critical part of his newfound success.
“One of the things I talked to him about before we went to training camp, I had lunch with him in the city, and I tried to challenge him on creating offense in different ways,” Sullivan said. “I thought that was an opportunity for us and for him.”
It took a while for Lafrenière to fully buy into what Sullivan was challenging out of him, but coming out of the Olympic break, he’s beginning to play the game in a way we haven’t really seen from him in his previous five NHL seasons.
The 24-year-old forward has recently evolved into not only a finesse player, who is reliant on his talent alone, but he isn’t afraid to play the “grind game” as Sullivan refers to it as.
Lafrenière is battling for loose pucks and getting into the dirty areas, specifically in front of the net, which has allowed him to score in a multitude of different ways, helping expand his game.
This new mentality is translating to the stat sheet for Lafrenière. In the 11 games coming out of the Olympic break, he has recorded seven goals, six assists, and 13 points.
“He’s always been a player who is gifted offensively, and he has the ability to create off the rush with his talent and his ability level,” Sullivan said of Lafrenière. “I think where Laf has improved most recently is in the down low game, in the offensive zone, the grind game. Just hanging onto pucks down low, challenging people one-on-one, forcing teams to defend him. He’s big, he’s strong, he can defend pucks. He can roll off of pressure, he can invite pressure, roll off it and make his next play. His willingness to get inside, get to the netfront.
“I’ve had a number of conversations with him this year about getting inside more. If you want to score 30 goals in this league, you are not getting 30 goals from the perimeter, you’re not getting 30 highlight-reel goals that are ending up on ESPN every night. You gotta get a fair amount of them that are deflections, tips, rebounds… That’s a part of the game where I think Laf has really made a commitment there to embracing that element of the game, and I think he’s getting rewarded for it.”
Everybody has been waiting for Lafrenière to break out, but what exactly does that entail?
Maybe all Lafrenière needed was for a coach to steer him in the right direction and help him take steps to evolve elements of his game.
And it all started with a simple lunch outing.