In perhaps their final bit of business this offseason, the Kings re-signed forward Alex Laferriere to a three-year contract extension with a $4.1 million annual average value and $12.3 million in total payout, the team announced Saturday.
Laferriere, 23, will be under contract until 2028, at which point he could become an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent, retaining the Kings’ right to match any competing offer.
The 2020 third-rounder (83rd overall) became a regular for the big club two seasons ago, logging 81 of 82 games as a rookie while notching 12 goals and 11 assists. Last year, he nearly doubled that output with 19 tallies and 23 helpers for a total of 42 points.
Laferriere started the season hot, much like fellow university-aged King Brandt Clarke, with six goals in his first dozen games. He flirted with a 20-goal campaign despite a daunting midseason stretch during which 17 games passed between goals for the Harvard product.
As one of the few right-handed-shooting forwards the Kings had, Laferriere finagled power-play time, though he contributed a modest four points with the extra man. Defensively, he was quite reliable, finishing with a +22 rating that tied Adrian Kempe for the best mark on the team among attackers.
Laferriere teamed effectively with Quinton Byfield and Kevin Fiala late in the season when the line was reassembled. As that duo surged, Laferriere rediscovered his scoring touch as well, most notably during a week when he picked up six points in four games from April 5 to April 12.
In two seasons at Harvard, Laferriere scored at over a point-per-game pace for the Crimson and was the Eastern College Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year as a freshman. The time in Boston was apropos for Laferriere, who grew up a Bruins fan in New Jersey thanks to his dad Rob, a college hockey player himself, and his roots in New Bedford, Mass.
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