A bigger, stronger Alex Laferriere off to fast start in second year with Harvard

Despite how young their roster was, the Crimson topped Quinnipiac in the ECAC championship game before falling to Minnesota State University in the regional semifinal round of the NCAA tournament.

Prior to rejoining Harvard for his second season, Laferriere participated in the LA Kings Development Camp. He was one of the standout performers in the weeklong event, concluding with a scrimmage at the end of the week.

“That was awesome,” he said of the camp overall. “Just being able to get out there with all the other prospects and kind of put the names to faces and everything like that around the organization and the prospects were was awesome and getting to be out there for a week, and really nice weather was pretty nice as well.”

Despite it being his third year with the organization, this was Laferriere’s first development camp.

The Kings have kept in close contact with him throughout the process, but the young forward said it was great to communicate with the player development staff in person.

“The Kings organization does a great job of keeping in touch. They’ve been kind of giving me updates periodically, kind of checking in with me and where I’m at,” Laferriere said. “But, yeah, after development camp, it was awesome to have their in-person view on things and kind of see where all the prospects are for me personally. They definitely did a great job of communicating what they thought about me, so that was really special.”

While it’s a small sample size, Laferriere’s been shooting the puck at a significantly higher clip (22.7%) than last year (10.3%).

Asked if that’s been one of his main objectives coming into this season, he noted that with the humorous nudging of his grandfather, he’s been focused on putting more shots on net.

“It’s actually funny. My grandpa sent me these t-shirts that have ‘STP’ on them. It’s like the oil company, but he always says that stands for ‘Shoot The Puck.’ Whenever I have a game where I don’t shoot, he’ll send me one of those just to kind of remind me,” he said jokingly. “But, yeah, I think that’s something I’ve been trying to focus on more is just trying to get more shots on net because as long as you’re shooting the puck, good things happen.”

One of the areas where Laferriere has been the most noticeable in the early stages of the season has been on Harvard’s powerplay. The young forward already has three goals on the man advantage, one shy of last year’s total.

While it’s a new role for him, Laferriere has found a home in the bumper role.

“I really never played there before. I was always kind of on the half wall in juniors and then last year a little bit,” he said. “I like it, though. I think it was challenging for me at first just to kind of be able to find the open ice, but now that I know specific spots where the other guys are looking to pass me the puck, I think it’s worked out so far.”

Harvard will look to keep their record unblemished with a road trip to RPI and Union College this weekend.