Leafs made a mistake gifting Lafferty to Canucks
Wonder if the Toronto Maple Leafs could use a player like Sam Lafferty. Check that, the way the Vancouver Canucks forward has played this season, every team could use a player like Lafferty.
Vancouver picked up the unheralded Lafferty from Toronto in a pre-season trade, which is looking like a stroke of genius for Canucks GM Patrik Allvin.
Lafferty has provided the Canucks with everything they could have possibly hoped for, and it only cost them a fifth-round draft pick. With 13 points (7-6-13) in 26 games, Lafferty is on pace for a career-best season. He had 27 points (12-15-27) in 70 games split between Chicago and Toronto last season.
Long way to go, but he’s on a 22-goal and 41-point pace right now.
Beyond the numbers, Lafferty has brought an injection of energy to the club. Lafferty can skate, and his tenacity fits well into the Canucks’ bottom-six forward group.
Head coach Rick Tocchet has called him a “Swiss Army knife,” which is appropriate now that Lafferty is contributing in the top six.
Elevated to play on Elias Pettersson’s line in place of Andrei Kuzmenko, the 28-year-old Pennsylvania native has thrived. Lafferty has goals in consecutive games and has scored four times in his last eight games.
Lafferty gets the goal on Quinn Hughes' shot and it's 5-4 Devils đź‘€ pic.twitter.com/YSHDSeN5mD
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) December 6, 2023
Three of those four goals have been scored in a workmanlike fashion — twice off deflections and once banging in a rebound.
“He’s obviously a fast player, but it’s his willingness to get to the net. On a lot of his goals, if you watch, they are around the net, and we need those type of players,” Tocchet said in recent weeks.
All of Lafferty’s points have been scored at even strength, save for a shorthanded goal on November 20, in which he displayed great hustle and anticipation.
Sam Lafferty with the shorthanded buzzer beater! 🚨 pic.twitter.com/Yaf1GNLA4E
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 21, 2023
The Canucks are happy to have him, and you have to wonder if the Leafs are regretting their decision to send him to the west coast.
Lafferty has more points than every Leafs forward outside their core four of William Nylander, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and John Tavares.
Toronto opted to keep Noah Gregor, who earned a contract off a PTO in training camp, over Lafferty. He has four points in 22 games.
Then there’s Ryan Reaves, who was always going to make the Leafs’ opening-night roster because of his enforcer role. But the 36-year-old tough guy has had a rough start in Toronto, with one goal, no assists, and a team-worst -10 plus-minus rating despite playing just 7:33 per game. In 127 minutes of five-on-five ice time, Reaves has been on the ice for two goals-for and 12 against.
Lafferty, meanwhile, has been on the ice for 18 goals-for and nine against.
His stint as a top-six winger likely won’t last long term, but it doesn’t need to for the Canucks to claim victory in this trade.
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