[Sandman]

Draft Thoughts:

Feb.28th: It's hard to project players from the US High School Prep circuit. The 2024-25 season was RHC Liam Lefebvre's draft year, but he was passed over after registering 57 points in 25 games for the Trinity-Pawling School, which put him in a tie for 28th in the scoring race, but 6th in ppg (2.28). The Montreal-native moved to the QMJHL this season to play with the Rimouski Oceanic, where he put up 29 points (15 goals) in 34 matches, before being dealt to the Chicoutimi Sagueneens just before the trade deadline in early-January for defense-prospect Charles Genereux, and a swap of import picks. The Sags have loaded up on quality players in an effort to boost their playoff hopes, and are now first-place in the Q (the Oceanic are second-last), so with the extra talent around him, Lefebvre has piled up 17 points in 16 tilts with his new team, for a total of 46 in 50 games. He turns 19 on May 15th, but Central Scouting ranks him #70 for North Americans on their Mid-Term List.

Lefebvre's numbers are nothing to sneeze at, but he is in his D+1 year, and ranks 45th in QMJHL scoring- so it's hard to project him as a sure-thing to be a future top-six forward in the NHL. Even still, he fits the profile that scouts drool over, that of a power-center with size (6'3",203lbs) who skates well, shoots hard, and plays a physical brand of hockey. Lefebvre skates remarkably well on a long, powerful stride, but it's his agility and maneuverability on his edges that's shockingly impressive; he achieves excellent speed and balance through his tight turns, quick pivots, and rapid changes of pace and trajectory that make him hard to defend. At top speed, he's like a freight-train, and can control the pace of the game. Though he looks bigger on the ice than his listed size, he can maneuver through traffic while evading checks, and change direction without losing much momentum. Adding to this is his solid puck-skills and well-developed protection ability that enable him to maintain possession on the fly- his stability and balance help him to be strong on the puck, but he doesn't really try to beat opponents one-on-one with fancy stickhandling tricks. As the eye-test will you, and the advanced stats will confirm, Lefebvre is a top-tier defensive forward who understands his duties as a center (though he seems to be playing mostly third-line RW in Chicoutimi); he seems to take pride in being impactful on the backcheck, performing his duties with desperation and intensity, showing elevated awareness, good details, and astute positioning. He disrupts plays with a smart stick, punctuates his stops with grit and physicality, wins more than his fair-share of battles, and beats attackers to loose pucks with his quickness. He also displays a proficiency on the face-off dot- currently sporting a 53.3% in this category.

Lefebvre works hard, plays an energetic game, and is an intimidating and disruptive forechecker. He's a skilled passer with acute vision who reads the play well in front of him, and does all the little things to advance the play in the right direction, but he may not have any kind of advanced creativity in the offensive zone. Most of his play-creation comes from his nose for the net, and his shoot-first mentality, which funnels pucks to the net. Lefebvre likes to unleash a bullet of a one-timer from the high-slot, and he can pick corners with it, but he seems to do most of his damage by timing his attacks to the net to be there at just the right time to clean up garbage around the crease. He expertly finds open space around the net to sneak in and out of, and facilitates for his teammates by causing havok in-front, and providing a screen for them. Lefebvre knows how to use his size as leverage to win inside positioning, or to bull his way through traffic. and has plenty of snarl- evidenced by his 74 PIM in 50 games. With a mostly simple and straightforward approach, Lefebvre's game looks projectable, but it's hard to tell what his ceiling will be. Look for him in the third-round.