Here’s every NHL team’s player to watch break out this year
By Paul Grant
Los Angeles Kings: Alex Iafallo
Sometimes, as a prospect, the sun shines down on you and you get the most glorious opportunity right off the hop. That’s what Alex Iafallo is staring at as he enters his sophomore season for the Kings, who had seen something in him after their debacle of a 2016-17 season, signing him out of the NCAA (University of Minnesota-Duluth) in April 2017, and plopped him right into the lineup. The left-shooting winger went on to have a decent season last year, his first in the NHL, scoring nine goals and adding 16 assists for 25 points in 75 games.
But this is the season you’re going to get to know him better: he’s penciled in on the No. 1 line, playing alongside none other than Mr. Rebound, Anze Kopitar, who had an awesome 2017-18 (35 goals, 57 assists for 92 points in 82 games) and … Ilya Kovalchuk, Mr. NHL Retirement Dodger himself. If Kovalchuk still has anything left in the tank after playing in the KHL for the last five seasons, racking up 120 goals, 165 assists for 285 points in 262 games, then Iafallo is going to see a lot of juicy rebounds, crisp cross-ice passes and goals going in off his hind quarters.
Now that’s a recipe for a breakout.