Coming off of the best season in his career, you may’ve thought Sam Lafferty was poised to repeat that success in Buffalo. Unfortunately, it never occurred, and Lafferty ended up proving to everyone he is what he always was: a fringe fourth-liner who could play full-time minutes when needed, but probably shouldn’t. Not much different from what we saw with Beck Malenstyn.
And not a good acquisition for the Sabres, in other words, and it has nothing to do with Lafferty’s lack of offensive output. We all knew Lafferty wasn’t giving the Blue and Gold much to work with here no matter how anyone spun it, but you’d have thought more defense and something better than a minus-15, right?
Grade: D - What’s keeping Lafferty from getting a failing grade is that his numbers in Buffalo reflect he’s still what he’s always been. So it’s hard to fail him when he’s coming off of just one good season. Still, you’d have thought he’d have limited his number of steps back. Instead, he took several steps back.
Sam Lafferty’s 2024-25 season was forgettable in every way
Through 60 games, Lafferty only gave the Sabres four goals and three assists, good for just seven points. Not much different from what we expected, I’m sure, but the minus-15 hurt, as did the fact he averaged under 10 minutes of ice time per game, which are borderline enforcer minutes.
Lafferty ended the year with 89 hits, which wasn’t a bad number, but under head coach Lindy Ruff, you’d have thought he’d be even more aggressive. That wasn’t the case here, and you can argue he played just physical enough of a game to show he could still land body checks. But it wasn’t good enough.
As for possession metrics at even strength, his 46.3 Corsi For was nothing to scoff at, but with an offensive zone starting percentage of 37.6, you can argue he made the most of it. But he did little to help create chances and help linemates finish sequences, as his 5.5 on-ice shooting percentage shows. Lafferty’s on-ice save percentage in that same situation also didn’t brim, as he ended the year with an 89.2.
What will Sam Lafferty’s 2025-26 season look like?
With one more year on his contract, Lafferty will likely stick around the City of Good Neighbors. Hopefully, we see the Sam Lafferty of 2023-24 come back out of the woodwork, but, chances are, he’ll either be the same player he was last season or, at best, slightly better.
Still, at this point, I’d rather see Tyson Kozak take his place, as at least Kozak showed flashes when he got his chances. Kozak is also younger, and will likely grow into a hitter’s mentality while pitching in from a depth standpoint.
But he’ll have to win that job if he wants to seriously cut into Lafferty’s ice time. As for Lafferty, there’s also a chance he could be that type who “knows the situation,” meaning he’ll be relegated to the press box half the time.