This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Sam Lafferty
Buffalo Sabres Center
Thirteen goals on seventy-eight shots, and five career shorthanded goals from a fourth line.
| 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 | CHI/TOR | 70 | 12 | 15 | 27 | -11 | 37 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 102 | 11.8 | 14:37 |
| 2023-24 | VAN | 79 | 13 | 11 | 24 | +4 | 32 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 78 | 16.7 | 11:53 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 289 | 36 | 47 | 83 | -24 | 154 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 349 | 10.3 | 12:14 |
This Season So Far
The 2024-25 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
13 goals and 11 assists in 79 games for Vancouver — 24 points at 11:53 a night, plus-4, with 1 shorthanded goal and 3 game-winners on 78 shots, converting at 16.67 per cent, and 32 penalty minutes. A career high in goals.
46.2 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 869 minutes, the 25th percentile. His ice went 39-32 against an expectation of 29.09-33.83 — ten goals scored above expectation on a fourth line, which is not going to repeat.
The Finesse Game
78 attempts at a median of 18 feet, with 53 per cent from inside 20 and 13 per cent from beyond 40, converting at 16.67 per cent against a career 10.32.
He goes to the net and shoots from the paint, and thirteen goals in under twelve minutes a night is a very good rate for the ice he is given. The conversion is shot selection plus a good year.
11 assists. He does not create and the puck does not stay on his stick.
The Physical Game
6-2 and 205. He forechecks first and closes on a defenceman quickly — the skating is the top end of a fourth line and it is why he kills penalties.
32 penalty minutes in 79 games and 154 in 289 for his career is a moderate rate. He does not agitate and he does not retaliate.
The Intangibles
A hundred and thirteenth overall in 2014 by Pittsburgh, four years at Brown, and 289 NHL games and 83 points at 29 across five clubs.
Five career shorthanded goals in 289 games from a fourth-line forward is the trait that keeps him employed, and it is exactly what a club with a 23rd-ranked penalty kill should be buying.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 869 minutes
- Expected goals
- 46.2%
- 25th pct
- Shot attempts
- 48.6%
- 41st 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: 39 for, 32 against. Expected: 29.1 and 33.8.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 30 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 201 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 65 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.
Usual linemates
2023-24 with VAN · 869 minutes at five-on-five
- Nils Hoglander35%
- Nils Aman23%
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, 2023-24
- The club
- VAN took 52.6% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 46.2% — 6.4 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Fourth line, 869 minutes at five-on-five — 46th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ian Cole | 47.5% | 45.5% | 54.7% |
| Nils Hoglander | 45.7% | 46.5% | 57.9% |
| Tyler Myers | 46.9% | 45.9% | 54.7% |
47.5% together, 45.5% for him apart and 54.7% for Cole apart. Cole was better away from him while his own share held, which is a mark against him more than for him.
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
112 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 13 of them goals. His median goal came from 9 feet. 53% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 13% from beyond forty.