The Chicago Blackhawks haven’t made much noise this summer, only making three moves: signing Dominic Toninato in free agency and trading for Andre Burakovsky and Sam Lafferty.
As the saying goes, “You never forget your first,” and for general manager Kyle Davidson, that saying holds true with Lafferty, as he was the first player transaction made by general manager Kyle Davidson in 2022.
Now, Lafferty is back for his second stint in Chicago after being acquired from the Buffalo Sabres on July 1.
Lafferty’s Back, Back Again
Technically, this is Lafferty’s third stint with Chicago, but it’s hard to call the third one a “stint”; more like a “how do you do?”
To recap, Davidson traded for Lafferty in exchange for Alex Nylander in January 2022, and he had a solid run in Chicago, earning himself a two-year extension three months later, with Davidson saying in part, “Sam’s speed and up-tempo style is the brand of hockey we hope to see the team play over the coming years.”
He was a dependable bottom-six forward and great on the penalty kill. There was even a point in 2023 when he was one of the NHL leaders in short-handed goals. Speaking of that 2022-23 season, that was his best of his career at the time, where he had 21 points in 51 games. When he first joined the Blackhawks, he had 11 points in 46 games. It was a significant jump. So much so that when the team went through their infamous roster teardown at the trade deadline, it was thought that Lafferty could garner a significant trade package on his own.
The Blackhawks ended up packaging him and Jake McCabe to the Toronto Maple Leafs in February 2023 for a 2025 conditional first-round pick, a 2026 second-round pick, Joey Anderson, and Pavel Gogolev.
I don’t think Lafferty was someone Davidson was happy to move on from, but considering they were deep in their rebuild and needed draft capital (and also wanted a shot at landing Connor Bedard), I’m not sure he could afford not to move on from him based on their objectives at the time.
But it seemed like Davidson tried to remedy that. He traded for Lafferty last June in the Ilya Mikheyev package from the Vancouver Canucks. Davidson mentioned being hopeful they could come to a contract agreement, as he was a free agent. But he chose to sign with the Buffalo Sabres on a two-year, $4 million contract.
Lafferty’s time in…
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