‘No one thought he’d make it’: How Alex Laferriere fought his way to the Los Angeles Kings

Credit: Alex Laferriere (© Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports)

This article was written by Penelope Jennings, who is part of the Professional Hockey Writers Association x To Hockey With Love Mentorship Program. This program pairs aspiring writers with established members of the association across North America to create opportunities for marginalized people that do not traditionally get published on larger platforms covering hockey.

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Alex Laferriere made headlines in his NHL debut when he wound up in a fight with Colorado Avalanche forward Logan O’Connor. The 6-foot-1 rookie brought O’Connor down to the ice to the cheers of his family, who made the trip to Los Angeles from Chatham, New Jersey.

“Kind of just tried to survive,” Laferriere said of the fight on a recent phone call.

He may be average size for an NHL player now, but once upon a time Laferriere was a 5-foot-2 high schooler fighting for a roster spot.

“It was interesting to say the least,” Alex’s dad, Rob, said. “It was his first flight ever. So when when the fight started, we’re like, ‘Oh, my God, this is this is not going to end well.’ ”

Laferriere got into skating with his parents and older sister as a toddler. But he was less eager to pick up a stick, needing to be bribed with candy by his sister. Hockey was in his blood, though. His dad, Rob, played a year of college hockey at Princeton University before transferring to Boston College where he continued to play hockey and met his wife. His uncle played at Williams College.

Whether they play ice hockey or any other sport, one thing about the Laferrieres is they’re athletic. The oldest, Sophie, swam on Ohio State’s club swim team. Harry plays lacrosse at Brown University. His other brother, Jack, plays for the Northeast Generals of the NAHL. The youngest Laferriere, Phoebe, is a freshman on the field hockey team at the Oak Knoll School in Summit, N.J.

Family is deeply ingrained in Laferriere’s journey. His dad coached him for 10 years while he played for the New Jersey Colonials. His friends have always been a constant too; three guys he would go on to play with in college were also on the Colonials with him.

“You see [a friend] score on Instagram or Snapchat or Twitter, you kind of want to score too so he doesn’t have the leg up on you,” Laferriere said.

But you can only play with dad and your friends at home for so long, and after playing two years of high school for the North Jersey Avalanche and his local Chatham High School, it was off to prep school.

For a while, just making teams was “tough.” So was the move away from home — on him and his parents.

Luckily for their tight-knit family, though, Laferriere’s younger brother, Harry, went with him and the two moved to Connecticut to go to the Kent School together.

“The first team where I had to earn my spot and compete was the Avalanche when I was 15 and 16,” Laferriere said. “It kind of taught me that no matter where I start on the team, I can always work hard enough to improve my spot on the team and kind of gain a bigger role. Not a lot of people have to deal with that until they’re in pro hockey.”

“Although it was difficult as a family and you like seeing him go out to Iowa (after Kent School, Laferriere played for the Des Moines Buccaneers in the USHL), which is, you know, not around the corner from Chatham, N.J., we felt pretty comfortable given how badly he wanted it,” Rob said.

Even by the time he was playing junior hockey, though, Laferriere was still much smaller than his peers.

When asked if he thought Laferriere would make it to the NHL, Kent School head coach Dale Reinhardt said, “Honestly, no.”

At 16, Laferriere was still just 5-foot-4.

Laferriere (second from right) at age 14 with club hockey teammates

But then something great happened. Laferriere went through a growth spurt and could finally match the physicality of his teammates and opponents. He had had the skill, and now he finally had some size to go with it.

“Kind of like everything came together that year,” Rob said of Laferriere’s final year at Kent before the full-time jump to the USHL.

Laferriere shined at Kent and was named Prep School Player of the Year by the New England Hockey Journal, registering 53 points in 27 games. It was all coming together. Over his winter break, he went out to Iowa and skated with the Buccaneers for the first time. They wanted him to stay that first season, but he wanted to finish his prep school season — only leaving for Iowa the following season in his senior year of high school.

The eventual decision to go to the USHL was not made lightly. But under the advice of Dan Marshall, an advisor with the ORR Hockey Group, they took a bit of a leap of faith.

“You can’t judge a player until 17. And some players still develop until their early 20s,” Marshall said.

The move about 80 miles northeast to Kent School was one thing, but Des Moines is over 1,000 miles away.

“The one thing that I miss the most, I think is Taylor ham, egg and cheeses,” Laferriere said of leaving home at an early age. “That’s probably my like, if I was on death row and got one last meal it would probably be that.”

And this time he was going without any family. Laferriere found a new one with his billet mom, Marie, though (when the Kings recently played the Minnesota Wild, Marie was at the game decked out in his Buccaneers jersey).

Bigger and older, Laferriere kept putting pieces together and reached new levels in Des Moines.

“He was like, ‘I like to pass the puck’ and I was like, ‘well, you can score you know’,” said Peter Mannino, Laferriere’s former Des Moines Buccaneers head coach and a current Colorado College assistant.

That lesson from Mannino about scoring clearly resonated with Laferriere, who put up 19 goals in 42 games that year and 26 in 49 the next. In his rookie season, his point per game play garnered attention from colleges and NHL clubs alike. By year’s end, he’d risen to No. 61 on NHL Central Scouting’s ranking of North American skaters for the 2020 draft. Though he had committed to play at West Point, he’d switch to Harvard. As a kid whose parents met at Boston College, grew up a Boston sports fan, and still has a Charlie McAvoy jersey hanging on the wall of his childhood bedroom, Laferriere wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to play in Boston.

“He was rated in the third round, but he kept going. Every pick in the third round was wrenching,” Marshall said of the wait until the Kings snatched him 83rd overall.

“We had some jerseys lying around, so we thought it would be fun during his draft party to hang some of the jerseys up around the house, hoping, praying that, if it’s one of those teams that takes him he can put the jersey on like he would have done if we were in Montreal at the actual event,” Rob said.

As it turned out, they happened to have a blank Kings jersey in their stash, too. Laferriere would have his own soon enough; the Kings sent his personalized #20 jersey with a message from their legendary #20, Luc Robitaille.

That jersey hangs in what was once Laferriere’s bedroom and is now basically a living museum dedicated to his hockey career.

The wait was worth it though, as it was his first time being drafted into any league (he wasn’t drafted into the USHL because of how far behind his peers he was in his physical development, so the Buccaneers signed).

Then, all set for the move to college, his freshman year was canceled when the Ivy League elected not to play due to the pandemic.

The situation kind of worked out for him, though, as he was able to return to Des Moines and play another year there while taking Harvard classes online.

When he finally took the ice for the Crimson, he had that benefit of an extra year developing in the USHL and it paid off. He put up four goals in his fourth career NCAA game.

“He’s always been a late bloomer,” Harvard assistant coach James Marcou said. “But when I first saw him at Harvard, you could see that his shot really stood out.”

In what was technically his sophomore season even though he was a rookie, Laferriere played in all 35 contests and notched 14 goals — good for second on the team. Always pushing himself, he played in every game again in his junior season and led the team in goals with 21.

Harvard’s 2022-23 season ended on March 24 after an NCAA Tournament loss to Ohio State. Two weeks later on April 9, Laferriere signed his entry level contract. He played in four games for the Ontario Reign, the Kings’ AHL affiliate, that season, notching one goal and one assist.

The training he put in must have made an impact because when the Kings announced their 2023-24 season opening roster, his name was on it.

“I guess Laferriere was sort of the next man up and he took advantage of the time that he was there and hopefully can stay there as long as possible,” Rob said.

It’s still not clear how long he’ll remain up in the NHL, the Kings have already loaned him to Ontario once — though, just as a cap maneuver.

“He needs to bring his A game every game and he gets that,” Rob said. “He wants to be accepted by his teammates and his coaches and and it’s challenging.”

So far, Laferriere has played in all but one game for the Kings and has scored twice. The first goal of his NHL career came on Oct. 21 against his childhood team, the Bruins. His second goal followed just a few games later on Oct. 28, his 22nd birthday.

“Now (I’m) kind of in a similar position where you have to earn everything you get,” Laferriere said. “It was definitely tough to go through as a 15 year old, but obviously having my family with me and kind of pushing me through it definitely helped a lot.”

He may be on the opposite coast from his family now and constantly traveling around North America, but his family is always in his corner whether they’re watching at home on TV or making the trip to watch in person.

His family aren’t the only ones in his corner anymore, either.

Eventually, he turned everyone into a believer. Marshall. Curran. Reinhardt. Mannino. Marcou. None of them doubt him anymore.

“He’s just one of those guys that always finds a way to be a difference maker,” Marshall finished.

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‘No one thought he’d make it’: How Alex Laferriere fought his way to the Los Angeles Kings

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