Sam Lafferty grew up close enough to Buffalo to remember the dynamic, exciting Sabres teams that Lindy Ruff coached to consecutive Eastern Conference finals.
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Sabres center Sam Lafferty, left, shown while playing for Vancouver, irritates opponents on the forecheck with his tenacity and speed.
A worker-bee forward raised in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, Lafferty has seen throughout his five years in the NHL that the fan base in Western New York can be as loud and raucous as the others he played for in Pittsburgh, Chicago, Toronto and Vancouver.
Lafferty is one of the players that Ruff and Sabres General Manager Kevyn Adams added to try to bring life to the crowds in KeyBank Center and energize their club with a blend of painful-looking hits and momentum-stopping penalty kills.
“The more we thought about Buffalo, the more we liked it and the opportunity here,” Lafferty told reporters on a video conference call after the 29-year-old signed a two-year contract to join the Sabres’ revamped bottom six. “I’ve always been a big fan of this hockey club and the players they had, so it got me excited, the opportunity to play with a lot of these guys, obviously. You could just tell from the conversations with Kevyn this was going to be a good fit and a situation where I think I can see myself really helping the team.”
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Some of the Sabres’ offseason additions will have to wait until training camp for their role to crystallize in Ruff’s return as coach.
Jason Zucker, Lafferty’s former teammate in Pittsburgh, can skate on the first, second or third line. Buffalo’s Dennis Gilbert is currently the team’s seventh or eighth defenseman after signing a one-year contract, but the uncertainty around the defense corps may create an opportunity for the former St. Joe’s standout to be a lineup fixture.
Lafferty is no different. Though Adams told reporters that Lafferty was brought to Buffalo to play center, the Sabres added to the position again Friday by acquiring Ryan McLeod from the Oilers. The trade — which sent 2022 first-round draft pick Matt Savoie to Edmonton — may cause shift Lafferty to the wing, or he can center the fourth line with Peyton Krebs shifting to the left side.
Lafferty’s physical, abrasive approach made him a priority target for the Sabres when Adams decided that his club had to become “harder to play against.” Lafferty is coming off a season in which he produced 13 goals, ranked third among all Vancouver forwards with 191 hits, excelled while skating next to the club’s first-line center, Elias Pettersson, and appeared in 11 playoff games for the Canucks, who lost to eventual Stanley Cup runner-up Edmonton in Game 7 of the second round.
The difference, however, is that Buffalo may ask Lafferty to return to a defensive-minded shutdown role that he did not fill during his time in Toronto and Vancouver.
“I think just the versatility wherever the team needs me, I’m willing and able to be put in those situations,” said Lafferty. “I think I could definitely help with the penalty kill and just bring my speed and energy every single night. I think it’s kind of wherever I’m placed is where I’m comfortable. So, yeah, just excited for starting to build our team game. That’s one of the things Lindy’s talked about, is just how we want to play as a group and just being hard to play against, and it starts with playing hard in our own end and tracking back hard. Excited to get things running and seeing what we can do.”
The Sabres are betting that Lafferty will have success in the faceoff dot next season like he did in 2022-23, when he won 51.1% of the 485 draws that he took between Chicago and Toronto. One potential issue, though, is that Lafferty wasn’t as effective last season, as he won only 42.1% of his faceoffs. He has a 44.5% conversion rate for his career, which isn’t all that impressive, either. His new club ranked 32nd in the NHL last season in faceoff winning percentage, an area that Ruff wants to improve, and the Sabres need a center to handle difficult defensive assignments.
Though Dylan Cozens benefited from learning how to fill that role under former head coach Don Granato, the Sabres need someone else to handle that responsibility at home when Ruff will be able to deploy Cozens against weaker competition. Cozens can handle those situations on the road when the other team has the second line change to determine line matchups, but the Sabres need to find ways to get more offense out of the 23-year-old center. His 18 goals last season weren’t enough for someone counting $7.1 million against the salary cap.
Lafferty and McLeod can take the pressure of Cozens, and the arrival of both players gives the Sabres the opportunity to have Peyton Krebs on the ice for fewer defensive-zone faceoffs. It’s important for the coaching staff and management to see if Krebs, 23, can produce more offense after he had only four goals and 17 points in 80 games last season.
If Krebs is a better fit to center the fourth line, then the club can move Lafferty to the wing and play McLeod at center. And, if McLeod is needed to play left wing on the first or second line, the club can recall 2022 first-round draft pick Jiri Kulich or 2024 first-round selection Konsta Helenius from Rochester to provide more offense at the position. Helenius, 18, is expected to begin the season with the Amerks, though the Sabres have yet to sign the 14th overall draft pick to an entry-level contract. Based on how the roster is constructed, Ruff could use the following lineup on opening night:
- JJ Peterka – Tage Thompson – Alex Tuch.
- Zach Benson – Dylan Cozens – Jack Quinn.
- Jason Zucker – Ryan McLeod. – Sam Lafferty.
- Beck Malenstyn – Peyton Krebs. – Nicolas Aube-Kubel/Jordan Greenway.
Lafferty also is effective on the wing and scored 25 goals over the past two seasons. His speed and tenacity on the forecheck would complement someone like Sabres winger Benson or Zucker, who the club signed to a one-year, $5 million contract to provide some of the offense it lost with the buyout of Jeff Skinner’s contract and trade of Casey Mittelstadt.
“I love his game,” Zucker said of Lafferty. “I mean, he brings a crazy amount of speed. The physicality is a lot of fun to watch. So, I think for us, we’re going to be bringing more of that and I think it’s going to make us a lot harder to play against next year.”
The Sabres will have to find out if Lafferty can handle a heavy workload of defensive-zone starts. He ranked 10th among all Vancouver forwards in that category last season, and he logged fewer than 30 minutes of short-handed ice time. Buffalo does not need him to play in the latter situations, unless Ruff prefers to avoid using top forwards like Thompson, Tuch and Cozens on the penalty kill. Lafferty scored four short-handed goals with the Blackhawks in 2022-23 before he was traded to the Maple Leafs at the deadline.
Lafferty irritates opponents on the forecheck and by finishing checks. He doesn’t have to lay a hit or stick up for a teammate to improve the Sabres, though. He, like the team’s other offseason additions, plays a simple game with the puck that should help Buffalo fix the terrible starts that doomed its playoff chances last season.
There were too many instances last season in which the Sabres would force cross-ice passes early in games while trying to score, and the strategy would backfire as a turnover turned into a goal against. They allowed a league-worst 97 goals in the first period. Ruff will have his players follow a more patient game plan that focuses on defending hard, then forechecking to earn scoring chances. The Sabres have the speed and skill to create off the rush, but those opportunities typically come through responsible play in the defensive and neutral zones.
Lafferty, Malenstyn, McLeod and Aube-Kubel were brought on to help transform the Sabres into a more mature, physical team that can win on nights when its opponent isn’t allowing the dynamic skill of Thompson and company to take over.
“I envision our team being a team that sticks together and competes hard for one another,” said Lafferty. “I’m excited to get everyone together and start to build that chemistry. … I think there’s no reason we can’t piece it together and have a lot of success this year.”