The Winnipeg Jets are now 51 days away from opening their 2026-27 NHL season at home against the Boston Bruins. The Jets are also 74 days away from hosting the Montreal Canadiens at Princess Auto Stadium for the 2026 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic. The long days of the NHL off-season are almost over, as we can soon start looking ahead to the 2026-27 season.

Today marks the continuation of a series that I’ve covered the past two off-seasons known as the “goals and expectations” series. This series quickly previews what to expect (and what to hope for) from Jets players in the 2026-27 season. Tonight’s player is a versatile forward who played up and down the lineup last season while providing important special teams minutes: Alex Iafallo.

The Jets acquired Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari, and Gabriel Vilardi plus a second round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft for Pierre-Luc Dubois back on June 27th, 2023. At the time of the trade, Iafallo was seen as the “2nd or 3rd best” piece to this trade, and now Iafallo continues to be an important member of the middle of the Jets lineup. Iafallo went undrafted after his junior career, but after playing four seasons with the University or Minnesota-Duluth, Iafallo joined the Los Angeles Kings in the 2017-18 season.

Iafallo’s career high in points occured back in the 2019-20 NHL season, where he recorded 43 points in 70 games. Iafallo has averaged around 30-35 points a season throughout his career, and last season Iafallo scored 13 goals and added 16 assists for 29 points. Although the point total may seem a little low, Iafallo was 6th on the Jets for points, a sign that the team lacked quite a lot of depth scoring throughout the lineup in a season where they missed the playoffs. Due to injuries from various forwards, Iafallo spent time on pretty much every line at some point in the season. Iafallo is versatile enough to have this not “hurt his game”, and the 2026-27 NHL season will hopefully be one where Iafallo can settle into one line for the majority of the season.

Iafallo’s spot in the Jets lineup depends on what happens with several players in the pre-season. Viggo Bjork and Brad Lambert both have opportunities to earn 2nd line minutes alongside Cole Perfetti, but they’ll both need to prove they’re ready to be in a top six role. Iafallo could serve as a 2nd line winger (either on the left or right side) if one or both of them aren’t in that spot on opening night. The second option is for Iafallo to be an every game player on the Jets 3rd line, providing a little more of a “defensive” role with linemates that will be less focused on their scoring and more focused on shutting down their opponents.

In terms of special teams, Iafallo will likely see some playing time on the Jets 2nd powerplay unit and 2nd penalty kill unit. Iafallo continues to develop his skills on the special teams, something which adds to his versatility in the Jets lineup. Iafallo has a very reasonable cap hit of $3.66 million for the next two seasons, and the Jets will get full value out of Iafallo if he continues to be a reliable and versatile winger that can be a regular depth scoring and penalty killing forward.

With everything that Iafallo has to offer in mind, I could see Iafallo (with the right linemates) setting a new career high of 18 goals in the 2026-27 season, surpassing his previous career high of 17 goals in two different seasons. Depending on the quality of his linemates, Iafallo could reach 20 assists this upcoming season for a 38 point season, which would be the 2nd highest total of his career. Fans continue to view Iafallo as a hard working forward who accepts whatever challenges come his way, and the trust the Jets organization has for Iafallo with his skillset makes him a player to keep an eye on in the 2026-27 NHL season.

The 2026 NHL off-season continues into the rest of August, as teams are still enjoying their last two or three weeks off before training camps begin in September. Stay tuned for more “goals and expectations” articles throughout the month of August (and early September) as I’ll look at what to expect from 2026-27 Jets players throughout the lineup. Let us know on our socials if there’s a certain player you’d like us to cover next, as we want to make sure this series covers the players you want to know more about!

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