This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Sam Lafferty
Chicago Blackhawks Center
7 points in 60 games, and a fourth-line centre signed to kill penalties.
| 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 | BUF | 60 | 4 | 3 | 7 | -15 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 8.0 | 9:53 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 349 | 40 | 50 | 90 | -39 | 182 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 399 | 10.0 | 11:50 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 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
4 goals and 3 assists in 60 games for 7 points, minus-15, on 9:53 a night between Buffalo and Chicago.
50 shots in 60 games and 4 goals. The smallest role on two rosters, and the numbers reflect it.
The Finesse Game
Essentially none. 7 points in 60 games is his rate over the last three seasons and there has never been a scoring season in his professional record above 21 points.
He skates and forechecks. That is the offensive contribution and it is entirely indirect.
The Physical Game
6-2 and 205, and the speed is the asset — genuinely quick in a straight line, which makes him dangerous shorthanded and useful on a forecheck.
28 penalty minutes over 60 games is a moderate rate for the style.
The Intangibles
A fourth-round pick, five organisations, and a career built entirely on penalty killing and pace.
At 30 the projection is a fourth-line centre for two or three more years. On a rebuilding club, 60 games of a forward with 7 points is a use of ice time worth questioning.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 515 minutes
- Expected goals
- 44.3%
- 12th pct
- Shot attempts
- 47.5%
- 29th 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: 22 for, 21 against. Expected: 15.4 and 19.4.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 19 points of one another. 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.
Both bars are percentiles among the 357 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 69 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
2024-25 with BUF · 515 minutes at five-on-five
- Peyton Krebs33%
- Ryan McLeod23%
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, 2024-25
- The club
- BUF took 47.9% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 44.3% — 3.6 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Fourth line, 515 minutes at five-on-five — 18th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beck Malenstyn | 45.9% | 41.2% | 45.8% |
| Bowen Byram | 50.0% | 41.1% | 48.4% |
| Connor Clifton | 35.7% | 48.7% | 46.7% |
45.9% together, 41.2% for him apart and 45.8% for Malenstyn apart. He was worse away from Malenstyn, who was no better away from him — he needed that pairing more than Malenstyn did.
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
67 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 4 of them goals. His median goal came from 25 feet. 40% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 33% from beyond forty.