Alexander Iafallo (born December 21, 1993) is an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
professional
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...
forward
Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward.
Forward may also refer to:
People
* Forward (surname)
Sports
* Forward (association football)
* Forward (basketball), including:
** Point forward
** Power forward (basketball)
** Sm ...
for the
Los Angeles Kings
The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference and was founded on June 5, 1967, after Jack Kent ...
of the
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
(NHL).
Early life
Iafallo was born on December 21, 1993, in
Eden, New York
Eden is a town located south of Buffalo, in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 7,688 at the 2010 census. The basis for choosing the town's name is unknown.
Eden is one of the interior "Southtowns" of Erie County, lying in ...
,
to father Tom and nurse Barb Iafallo. At the age of four, Iafallo began skating but was held back from joining the local mite travel team for a year per his parents' request. His father Tom, a restaurant owner and a coach, built a roller rink in their backyard for Iafallo and his sister Julianna to practice on. Julianna is also a former professional hockey player. She played for the
Buffalo Beauts
The Buffalo Beauts are a professional ice hockey team based in Amherst, New York, United States. The team was established in 2015 as one of the four founding franchises of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), originally named the National Women' ...
in the
National Women's Hockey League
The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), formerly the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), is a women's professional ice hockey league located in the United States and Canada. The league was established in 2015 with four league-owned teams and ha ...
.
Playing career
Youth
Growing up in Eden, New York, Iafallo played junior hockey for the Buffalo Regals 18U team while his sister competed with the Buffalo Bisons.
He also competed with the Western Region men’s scholastic ice hockey team at the 2010 Empire State Games where he helped the team win a gold medal. As the top scorer for the Regals during the 2010–11 Tier 1 AAA season, Iafallo helped guide the team towards a national championship.
He would leave the team after that season to play
junior hockey
Junior hockey is a level of competitive ice hockey generally for players between 16 and 21 years of age. Junior hockey leagues in the United States and Canada are considered amateur (with some exceptions) and operate within regions of each cou ...
with the
Fargo Force
The Fargo Force is a Tier I junior ice hockey team in the Western Conference of the United States Hockey League (USHL). The Force have won one league championship in 2018 and was awarded USHL Organization of the Year for 2008–09 and 2012–13. ...
in the
United States Hockey League
The United States Hockey League (USHL) is the top junior ice hockey league sanctioned by USA Hockey. The league consists of 16 active teams located in the midwestern United States, for players between the ages of 16 and 21. The USHL is strictly ...
(USHL) before embarking on a collegiate career with the
University of Minnesota Duluth
The University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) is a public university in Duluth, Minnesota. It is part of the University of Minnesota system and offers 16 bachelor's degrees in 88 majors, graduate programs in 25 different fields, and a two-year progr ...
of the
National Collegiate Hockey Conference
The National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) is an NCAA men's Division I hockey conference formed on July 9, 2011. The league began playing for the 2013–14 season, the same season that the Big Ten Conference began competition, as a combina ...
.
Collegiate
In his freshman season at the University of Minnesota Duluth, Iafallo played in 33 games and was named to the
NCHC All-Rookie Team.
Undrafted, Iafallo registered a team leading 21 goals, 30 assists and 51 points as a senior in the
2016–17 season. He was named a
First Team All–American and MVP of the
NCHC All-Tournament Team.
Having recorded 121 points in 152 games over the course of his four-year tenure with the Bulldogs, Iafallo was signed as a free agent to a two-year, entry-level contract with the
Los Angeles Kings
The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference and was founded on June 5, 1967, after Jack Kent ...
on April 19, 2017.
Professional
Having impressed throughout the Kings rookie and main roster training camp, Iafallo made the opening night roster for the
2017–18 season. He stepped straight into the NHL in making his debut for the Kings in a 2–0 victory over the
Philadelphia Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia. The Flyers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games in Wells ...
on October 5, 2017. He scored his first NHL goal on November 5, 2017, in his 14th career game, against the
Nashville Predators
The Nashville Predators (commonly referred to as the Preds) are a professional ice hockey team based in Nashville, Tennessee. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference, and ha ...
. This helped erase a three-goal deficit but the Predators won in overtime, 4–3. He would score 9 goals that season and 15 the following season.
On January 30, 2020, Iafallo recorded his first career hat trick in a 3–2 win over the
Arizona Coyotes
The Arizona Coyotes are a professional ice hockey team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Coyotes compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference and currently play at the Mull ...
. He became the third player in NHL history to score within the opening 25 seconds of an overtime period multiple times in a single season. He scored 17 goals in the
2019-20 season and was on pace for his first 20 goal, 50 point season before
Covid-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
shut down the NHL
On April 12, 2021, Iafallo signed a four-year, $16 million contract extension with the Kings.
He finished the season with 13 goals in the shortened 56-game
season
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...
, of which he played 55 games.
On May 7, 2021, Iafallo wore a letter on his jersey for the first time, serving as an
Alternate captain
In ice hockey, the captain is the player designated by a team as the only person authorized to speak with the game officials regarding rule interpretations when the captain is on the ice. At most levels of play each team must designate one captai ...
after
Dustin Brown was ruled out for the rest of the season with an injury.
He would become an alternate captain again in the
2021–22 season on two occasions. Following an injury to
Drew Doughty
Drew Doughty (born December 8, 1989) is a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman and alternate captain for the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected second overall by the Kings in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft fro ...
, Iafallo temporarily wore an “A” on his jersey. He would return the title to Doughty after his return in late November. When Doughty got injured again in mid-March 2022, Iafallo would once again wear an “A”.
Career statistics
Awards and honors
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Iafallo, Alex
1993 births
Living people
American men's ice hockey left wingers
Fargo Force players
Ice hockey players from New York (state)
Los Angeles Kings players
Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs men's ice hockey players
People from Eden, New York
Undrafted National Hockey League players
AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans