The Buffalo Sabres were looking for a decent third line center after both Dylan Cozens and Tage Thompson. They may have found him in center Sam Lafferty. Lafferty had spent last season with the Vancouver Canucks before entering free agency. His contract with Buffalo is a 2-year deal worth $2 million.
Besides his time at center, he will provide much needed depth after the Sabres chose to move on from Jeff Skinner and other players as well. Lafferty played his first season in the NHL in 2019 with the Pittsburgh Penguins and has played on four different teams before signing with the Sabres.
Last season, while with the Canucks, he played in 79 games scoring 13 goals and totaling 24 points on the season. Sam had a plus/minus of +4 to finish out the year. During the 79 games, he won 42.1% of his faceoffs. In the playoffs with Vancouver, Lafferty had 27 hits in just 11 games. Sam also won 44.4% of all faceoffs during the postseason run.
In comparison, no Sabres had a plus/minus that was in the positive last season except for Peyton Krebs. Most of the centers had a better faceoff percentage than Lafferty, but no centers still on the roster had more hits than Lafferty during the entirety of the season as he finished the year with 137 hits.
His experience will be instrumental in a young team. The longest tenured player on the Buffalo roster currently is Rasmus Dahlin. Lafferty has played in 21 postseason games during his career with Pittsburgh, Toronto and Vancouver.
Lafferty has played center the last two seasons and last year it was clear that the Sabres desperately lacked depth at the position. It may be not a splashy pickup but it could be the right one for head coach Lindy Ruff and company.