Lavoie was a player who was leaned on heavily offensively from the backend for Trois-Rivières throughout the tournament. He won’t necessarily floor you with his physical tools, but he’s a highly intelligent offensive rearguard who picks his spots wisely, displaying impressive timing and instinctual play to jump into the rush and create looks for himself by working off his linemates. He very well may be one of the more effective powerplay quarterbacks in this entire draft class, moving the puck around the zone with precision and demonstrating the ability to get pucks on net through traffic. There’s still some work to be done on the defensive side of things, as he is susceptible to getting caught flat-footed defending the rush and has a hard time defending larger forwards off the cycle due to his size deficiencies, although there’s no denying the offensive acumen.

Lavoie is an undersized defender who relied heavily on his skating base to make a positive impact whenever he was out on the ice. He was an effective puck-mover for Québec Black from the backend, utilizing his lateral mobility to escape pressure on regroups and buy himself time to assess his options and move puck up ice. Lavoie had a few intelligent activation sequences as well, jumping into space off the rush, receiving passes as the trailer option and getting shots off from above the circle.

Lavoie is a player who got better and better as the tournament went along, playing his best games in the latter half of the event. He’s an undersized defender with a pretty strong skating base and aggressive instincts, which he used to cover ground in the neutral zone and break up rush plays before they could materialize. I thought he was very effective on defensive zone retrievals by leveraging his edgework to pivot away quickly from forechecking pressure and making quick outlets up ice that helped facilitate controlled exits out of his own end.

Lavoie had himself a solid outing in this one, keeping things at bay at 5v5 and finishing with 2 assists. He may not overwhelm you with dynamic skill as an undersized offensive defenseman, but he more than makes up for it with an intelligent and tactical puck-moving game. He was consistently able to connect on outlet passes through traffic in the neutral zone, hitting teammates in stride and allowing them to enter the offensive zone with momentum. He was very effective as a power play quarterback on the Estacades’ primary unit, moving the puck well from the top of the zone and executing downhill passes through seams that lead to deflections from in tight.