Coming off his best season in the NHL, LA Kings forward Alex Iafallo touched on several important topics to monitor in 2021. Here were the three best.
Signed as an undrafted free agent, Alex Iafallo posted his best season with the LA Kings in the 19-20 season, tallying 17 goals with 43 points in a COVID-19 shortened 70-game season. He recently turned 27 years old and will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2021 season.
General manager Rob Blake briefly discussed Iafallao’s contract earlier this week, indicating no movement has yet to happen, but they plan to start talking in the coming weeks. The Eden, New York native spoke with the LA Kings media via Zoom call after Day 3 of training camp on Saturday. Here were the three best quotes.
On what the next step is entering his fourth year in the league
Yeah, I feel like, you know, this year coming up, I need to shoot more. I have to keep getting better in the offensive zone while staying consistent in all three zones. So, you know, working on quick shots from the slot and being more offensive.
(follow-up question) and if he feels like he needs to be more of a leader in 2021
For sure. And so it’s important to help them out and make sure that we’re infusing the young guys and helping all the young guys out to get to their next level and to improve their skills. Myself, along with another second core guy (to transition into a leadership role), it’s going to be huge, and it’s going to help push the pace for us.
On picking up things on the defensive side playing with Anze Kopitar
For sure, yeah. You know, just learn a lot from him, obviously, over the years, and, you know, he’s very consistent in all three zones. So, you know, just simple things like always coming back to the puck. He’s always communicating. And he’s always in the right spot, whether it’s, you know, breakouts or just defending So the little things in the D zone like that go a long way for me and a lot of the players on the team.
On whether he would have preferred to have a normal offseason to keep the momentum from the 19-20 season
Yeah, I guess that could go either way. I mean, having a break definitely gives you time to think and do extra work. But not having a break, you know, you have to remember a lot, you know, system stuff. So, it’s good to have an extra couple days for us in this training camp to work with the coaches and work with our linemates to get all the rust off and move forward. It’s been a good three days good start to training camp, and I think everybody’s pretty excited.
Here’s the Zoom call.