Oilers draft winger Tommy Lafreniere who had 41 goals for Kamloops this season is off to powerhouse Western Michigan U this fall<\/p>\n
The Oilers used the 83rd overall pick<\/a> in the 2025 draft to select the Hornby Island, B.C. native. Playing for the Kamloops Blazers his draft season, Lafreni\u00e8re scored 24 goals and 56 points in 68 games, good enough to finish fourth in goals in points on the team.<\/p>\n This season, the 19-year-old has drastically increased his scoring, potting 41 goals and 77 points in 67 games with the Blazers. Those 41 goals have the right winger tied for sixth for goals in the Western Hockey League, tied with 2024 sixth overall pick Tij Iginla (who has played 19 fewer games).<\/p>\n Still, Lafreni\u00e8re has become an effective scorer<\/a> in the league, helping the Blazers finish with a 31-24-13 record over 68 games this season. That\u2019s good enough for fifth in the WHL\u2019s Western Conference. The Blazers begin their postseason with a matchup against their hated rivals, the Kelowna Rockets on FridayLast season was the first year where players from the three leagues that make up the Canadian Hockey League could move down south to join NCAA schools. The most notable of which was soon-to-be first round pick Gavin McKenna<\/a>, but he\u2019s one of many players to do so. However, Lafreni\u00e8re is the first Oiler to make the transfer.He\u2019ll join a handful of other Oiler players who play in the NCAA. They drafted Asher Barnett<\/a> and Aidan Park (Michigan) in the fifth and seventh round respectively. Bauer Berry<\/a> was drafted in the seventh round of the 2024 draft and joined St. Thomas for the 2025-26 season. Additionally, the Oilers acquired Paul Fischer from the St. Louis Blues in what was essentially compensation for not matching Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway.<\/p>\n Western Michigan are the reigning National Tournament winners, defeating Boston University 6-2 in the championship game to capture their first ever title. They\u2019ll be back at it again, with a first-round matchup against Minnesota State on March 27th. If Western Michigan wins that, they\u2019ll face either Cornell or Denver for a Frozen Four berth. Hopefully with Lafreni\u00e8re joining next season, they can continue their success.<\/p>\n Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Oilersnation, FlamesNation, and Blue Jays Nation. Follow her on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.<\/p>\n The Early Start Club is officially here!![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774513089_579_image.webp\"\/)
<\/a>Join Ryder and Lisa for their first official Early Start Club Watch Party event on Saturday, April 11th at GRETA, with the party starting at 1 p.m. ahead of the 2 p.m. puck drop. Tickets are just $10, with all proceeds supporting Kaleo Collective, an organization dedicated to building a loving and supportive community for single mothers and their kids. As an added bonus, every ticket purchased also includes entry into a draw to win tickets to the final regular season game, giving fans the chance to catch their favourite team live. Guests can enjoy GRETA\u2019s game day food and drink specials while taking part in t-shirt tosses, trivia, giveaways, and plenty of Ryder & Lisa-style chaos. Grab your crew, throw on your jersey, and kick off your hockey day the right way in Edmonton. Get your tickets now at nationgear.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oilers prospect Tommy Lafreni\u00e8re set to join Western Michigan for 2026-27 season On Wednesday morning, Edmonton Journal\u2019s Jim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-561654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}