Stéphane Dubé and Alexis Lafrenière always have talked about expectations, an inescapable concept for Lafrenière given his draft slot (No. 1 overall), team (the Rangers) and, eventually, his contract ($7.45 million per season). Dubé, Lafrenière’s longtime trainer and a former NHL conditioning coach, started in Pittsburgh midway through Sidney Crosby’s rookie year, and he’d point out to Lafrenière how Crosby, also a first-overall pick and also a former Rimouski Océanic star in the QMJHL, handled pressure.
For most of his career, though, Lafrenière diverged from the Crosby path. He didn’t have a 100-point, Rookie of the Year-winning campaign. Lafrenière has yet to manage more than 28 goals or 57 points through his first six seasons. But the 25-year-old always believed that he could be the type of player who could score 50 and fully reach the potential he kept unveiling in flashes, that all the work would eventually pay off because, as he told Dubé this summer, “I want to win in New York.”
Through eight games entering Thursday’s game against the Devils, Lafrenière is “playing like he means it,” Dubé said. He became the breakout star of the league with seven goals — including a four-game goal streak — and 10 points. His promising 30-game stretch to close last season carried over. And the chatter of Lafrenière being a disappointment has been replaced by the type that accompanies the potential emergence of a superstar.
“He wants to perform because he’s a performer,” Dubé told The Post. “He wants to be that guy.”