The NHL off-season is almost at the point where the players come back from their summer breaks and head to their training camps. Today, I wanted to look at a Jets player that I haven’t really talked about much besides in his “year in review” for the 2023-2024 season. That player is Alex Iafallo, who is the less talked about 2nd main piece of the infamous trade that sent Pierre-Luc Dubois to the L.A Kings. I wanted to talk about some expectations and projections for Iafallo in the 2024-25 season, similar to what I did with Nikolaj Ehlers, as well as discuss Iafallo’s importance in helping create offence for his bottom 6 forward line.

As I just mentioned, Iafallo is a player that doesn’t appear to be talked about enough on this Jets team. I mean sure, he’s less talked about because it was always Gabriel Vilardi who was the main acquisition from the Dubois trade. However, that doesn’t discount the importance of Iafallo, who is the most established player from that trade, joining the league as an undrafted free agent before the 2017-18 season.

Iafallo turns 31 this year, making him one of the older players on the Jets roster. His consistent production, in whatever role he’s placed in, allows him to be a valuable member to his team. Although Iafallo’s 27 point season in 2023-24 was his lowest since his rookie season, I expect Iafallo to increase that total in 2024-25. Just like Vilardi, Iafallo was just getting adjusted to his new team in 2023-24, and now that it’s his 2nd year with the team, he’ll be fully ready for the upcoming season.

Taking a look at the Jets projected forward lines for this upcoming season, Iafallo is slotted in at the 4th line right wing spot. Iafallo appears to have enough scoring ability to be on a 3rd line, but the Jets 3rd line from last season had too much good chemisty going between them to be split up. That being said, if Iafallo does remain in this projected 4th line wing role, he’ll have to be the one leading the production for that line.

Who plays with Iafallo on the 4th line could really dictate how much of Iafallo’s two-way play style leans towards offence or not. If those linemates are Morgan Barron and David Gustafsson, Iafallo will easily be the primary “goal scorer” for that line, as Barron and Gustafsson have less of a scoring touch.

But what happens if one the Jets young and upcoming players cracks the roster on opening night? A player such as Brad Lambert wouldn’t benefit from playing 4th line minutes in a shutdown role, so where would he be placed in the lineup, and would that affect where Iafallo plays? All of these are valid questions, but they’re good questions to have for the Jets, as it shows that they have good depth at the forward position.

One thing that’s for certain with Iafallo is that he’s a been a disciplined player that stays out of the box throughout his career. When you typically think “4th liner”, you think of the players that take the most penalties most of the time. Iafallo only took 3 penalties in 82 games, which is impressive as a bottom 6 forward. He just knows how to stay out of the penalty box, plain and simple.

So overall, I’ve been impressed with what Iafallo has brought to the Jets in his 1st full season, and I project him to hit 15 goals and 20+ assists this upcoming season. The off-ice details that I’ve forgot to mention about Iafallo is of course his contract. Iafallo is in the final year of his 4-year, 16 million dollar deal. 4 million is a lot to be paying for someone on a team’s 4th line, which may make for Iafallo’s name to be brought up in discussions around being moved out at the trade deadline or in the next off-season.

As much as it would be great for Iafallo to stick around with the Jets past next season on a cheaper deal, I expect him to do what most pending unrestricted free agents do, which is to give it their all in the upcoming season to help build their profiles for free agency. The bottom line, look for Iafallo to continue to impress by showing his versatility on whatever role he is given in this upcoming season. Pre-season hockey begins right around 6 weeks from today!