It looks like (to me) that Lafreniere is too deferential to his linemates. Whenever he gets the puck, he'll make a deft little pass through a seam and then try to get to the net, but the puck either never arrives or he gets a wack on it before the goalie freezes it. I would like to see him be more selfish and stretch his legs a bit with the puck on his blade, but he seems more committed to not being a weak link on his line than he is adapting his game to the NHL right now. The good news is that his play off the puck is pretty good for a rookie and despite not standing out offensively, he doesn't look lost or out of place.
What makes Lafreniere a unique talent is his economy of skill and his ability to leverage it to maintain possession and generate dangerous scoring chances and it seems like his game right now is in the pupal stage of that - He can recognize where he needs to be or who he has to try and get the puck to, but isn't comfortable/developed enough to use his vision and body language to orchestrate the field in front of him yet. If the early stages of a player like Stutzle is getting caved in possession wise but being able to flash the speed and shot at times, and the early stages of a player like Kakko was looking lost and too slow, but being able to score goals in close to the net simply with his smooth hands, maybe it's time to accept that Lafreniere's ground floor is being able to use his game sense to know where to be to make sure he is in the right spots, but not being able to leverage the rest of his tools to finish the job.
For the record, I'm not worried about him figuring out how to put the pieces together, and I frankly don't care if it takes him a season or two to start making a significant impact. I'll take the relief it should provide on his next contract and enjoy the finished product.
