This is the 2022-23 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Sam Lafferty
Chicago Blackhawks Center
Eighteen point seven bursts over 20 mph per 60 at the 98th percentile, with 66 per cent of his shots from the slot.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | PIT | 50 | 6 | 7 | 13 | +5 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 56 | 10.7 | 9:37 |
| 2020-21 | PIT | 34 | 0 | 6 | 6 | -6 | 25 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 0.0 | 9:47 |
| 2021-22 | PIT/CHI | 56 | 5 | 8 | 13 | -16 | 37 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 80 | 6.3 | 13:35 |
| 2022-23 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 140 | 11 | 21 | 32 | -17 | 85 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 169 | 6.5 | 11:14 |
This Season So Far
The 2022-23 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
5 goals and 8 assists in 56 games for Pittsburgh and here — 13 points at 13:35 a night, minus-16, with 37 penalty minutes.
47.8 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 640 minutes, the 32nd percentile among forwards, against 44.2 per cent of the shot attempts at the 9th. His ice went 18-35 against an expectation of 21.55-23.58 — eleven more goals against than the chances promised.
1:55 a night shorthanded is the 90th percentile among forwards.
The Finesse Game
66 per cent of his shots came from the slot, the 94th percentile among forwards, on a median distance of 18 feet at the 9th. He goes to the net and nowhere else, and 6.3 per cent shooting at the 9th percentile is what came of it.
6.32 shots per 60 is the 31st percentile. Low volume, from very close, at a very low conversion. Something in that has to move.
The Physical Game
6-2 and 205. 10.82 hits per 60 is the 91st percentile among forwards and 1.26 penalties drawn per 60 is the 86th.
18.7 bursts over 20 mph per 60 is the 98th percentile among forwards against a top speed of 23.1 mph at the 87th. He is fast and he is constantly at full speed, which is the rarer of the two things.
97.5 mph is the 95th percentile among forwards. Hard shot, from eighteen feet, at 6.3 per cent — that combination should not persist.
38.8 per cent of his even-strength time was in the offensive zone, the 9th percentile. He started shifts in his own end all season.
The Intangibles
One hundred and thirteenth overall in 2014 by Pittsburgh, fourth round, and 140 NHL games at 27.
He came here at the deadline. On a club that has traded four of its top six forwards, a fourth-line winger who kills penalties, forechecks at the 91st percentile and hits full speed more often than almost anyone is going to get a look higher up, and the shooting percentage is the only thing that has to move.
What kind of player
The searchable half of the report. The first group is computed from the season's own data; the rest are read out of the prose above, and each one carries the sentence that produced it. A subject the report never raised is simply absent.
- measuredcomputed here from the season's own data
- a strengthread out of the prose, and claimed
Each computed tag also says how well its measure holds up from one season to the next, because a tag describes a season that has finished and a reader will assume it predicts the one coming. Some do and some do not, and the gap is wide: five-on-five workload repeats well, scoring late does not repeat at all.
- slot-man· shoots from where goals are scored
66.0% of his attempts in the slot, 94th percentile among forwards
Season to season, this measure repeats well (0.69) · 44% keep it
- hard-minutes· is started in his own end, against the other club's best
23% of his end-zone starts in the attacking end, 1st percentile among forwards
Season to season, this measure repeats well (0.66) · 50% keep it
“He is fast and he is constantly at full speed, which is the rarer of the two things.”
“1:55 a night shorthanded is the 90th percentile among forwards.”
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2021-22 · 640 minutes
- Expected goals
- 47.8%
- 37th pct
- Shot attempts
- 44.2%
- 11th pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 18 for, 35 against. Expected: 21.6 and 23.6.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 37 points above where the numbers do. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.
Both bars are percentiles among the 649 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 66 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Tracked
NHL Edge, 2021-22 · 56 games
- Top speed
- 23.1 mph
- 91st pct
- Bursts over 20 mph
- 4.23 a game
- Distance
- 2.31 miles a game
- Hardest shot
- 97.5 mph
- 96th pct
fastest he was clocked all season; the league's average best is 22.0
how often he reaches that speed, not how fast he goes
skated, all strengths
one shot; the league's average best is 84.1
A top speed is a season's best, and a man who takes more shifts gets more tries at one; the percentile is the feed's own, against every skater, and says less between a top-pair defenceman and a fourth-line wing than it does between two men in the same job. The counts are shown per game for the same reason.
Usual linemates
2021-22 · 561 minutes at five-on-five
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2021-22
- The club
- CHI took 45.4% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 47.8% — 2.4 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Fourth line, 640 minutes at five-on-five — 27th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jake McCabe | 44.5% | 49.3% | 43.0% |
| Seth Jones | 40.3% | 50.6% | 48.1% |
| Kirby Dach | 42.8% | 49.6% | 46.1% |
44.5% together, 49.3% for him apart and 43.0% for McCabe apart. He was better away from McCabe, who was no worse away from him — the pairing cost him more than it cost McCabe.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
97 unblocked shots in 2021-22, 5 of them goals. His median goal came from 13 feet. 55% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 12% from beyond forty.