{"id":471747,"date":"2025-07-01T12:55:30","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T16:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=471747"},"modified":"2025-07-01T12:56:58","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T16:56:58","slug":"blackhawks-acquire-depth-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/07\/01\/blackhawks-acquire-depth-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Chicago Blackhawks Trade and Reunite With Depth Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Blackhawks and the Buffalo Sabres have agreed to a trade that sends Sam Lafferty<\/a> to Chicago in exchange for a 2026 sixth-round pick. Frank Seravalli was the first to report the trade.<\/p>\n

\n

Trade, per sources:<\/p>\n

To #Blackhawks<\/a>:
\nF Sam Lafferty<\/a><\/p>\n

To #Sabres<\/a>:
\n2026 6th Round Pick<\/p>\n

Lafferty has one year left at $2m.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) July 1, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sam Lafferty’s Time in Buffalo<\/h3>\n

Last offseason, the Sabres signed Lafferty to a two-year, $4 million deal. Lafferty was brought in to provide speed, physicality, and veteran presence to Buffalo\u2019s bottom six. In 60 games, he recorded four goals and three assists for seven points, averaging just under 10 minutes of ice time per game. His underlying numbers were not great. He struggled to stay in the lineup<\/a> and often found himself as a healthy scratch by Lindy Ruff<\/a>. Lafferty was the only depth signing to receive more than a one-year contract with the Sabres last offseason.<\/p>\n

Although Kevyn Adams<\/a> has been rocky as the Sabres’ general manager<\/a>. This is actually a fine trade. Lafferty would have been the 13th forward in Buffalo this season, at best. While it’s only a sixth round pick, they did manage to trade him for an asset. They didn’t have to buy him out or watch $2 million in cap space sitting in the press box for most of the season. It seems like this trade was a mutual parting ways for the benefit of both sides.<\/p>\n

Chicago Trades for Sam Lafferty Hoping He Can Bounce Back<\/h3>\n

Lafferty is coming off of a poor season in Buffalo. However, he had two decent seasons before that. In 2022-2023, he had 27 points playing for the Blackhawks and the Maple Leafs. And in 2023-2024 he had 24 points playing with the Canucks. There is a track record of being a good depth forward who can lay the body and marginally produce. With only a $2 million cap hit and only one year left on that deal, it’s not a big risk to take for Chicago at all. They have plenty of cap space, and if it doesn’t work out, you’re only out a sixth-round pick. If it does work out, you will have solidified a decent bottom-six forward for a team loaded with upcoming young talent.<\/p>\n

There is a lot of risk involved in this trade for the Blackhawks. While it isn’t a splashy trade by any means, it’s one thing Kyle Davidson is doing to make his team better.<\/p>\n

Fun Fact below provided by Ben Pope on X.<\/p>\n

\n

Blackhawks have acquired Sam Lafferty from the Sabres for a 2026 6th round pick.<\/p>\n

Crazy fact: This is the THIRD TIME Kyle Davidson has traded for Lafferty.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) July 1, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Main Photo: Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Blackhawks and the Buffalo Sabres have agreed to a trade that sends Sam Lafferty to Chicago in exchange for a 2026 sixth-round pick. Frank Seravalli was the first to report the trade. Trade, per sources: To #Blackhawks: F Sam Lafferty To #Sabres: 2026 6th Round Pick Lafferty has one year left at $2m. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5508,"featured_media":471771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27,4547,34,4548],"tags":[5909,4342],"class_list":["post-471747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blackhawks","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-chicago-blackhawks-news","tag-sam-lafferty"],"modified_by":"Colton Osmond, Dept Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5508"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471747"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":471774,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471747\/revisions\/471774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}