Returning regular · 2025-26
Sam Lafferty
Florida Panthers · C · R shot · age 31 at the dated snapshot.
- Team
- FLA
- Lane
- C
- Age
- 31
Production and deployment
How the points were built
Official NHL 2025–26 regular-season reports. A missing split stays “—”; it is never converted to zero.
Organizational context
9 C regulars in FLA
The all-team median is 7. FLA’s farm system ranks #30 in the maintained two-board consensus.
Questions a GM still has to answer
- How much of the scoring comes at five-on-five, on special teams, or into an empty net?
- Is the player creating the play, finishing it, or receiving a secondary point?
- Does deployment reveal trust, scarcity, underuse, or a role the roster cannot offer?
- What contract, acquisition cost, development alternative and Cup-window effect complete the argument?
Contract · FLA
$0.85M cap hit
2026–27 through 2026–27. Reported
Role question › Costs more per point than the position median and is below the line on five-on-five creation and penalty-kill use. Either the contract or the deployment needs a look.
- He did not reach the five-on-five sample (20 games and 10:00 a night at five-on-five), so the rate test cannot pass.
- At 0.8% of the cap, almost any NHL production is surplus.
- 7 real points at this cap hit would pass the cost test (he had 2).
- A five-on-five rate of 1.68 per 60 (he had no qualifying sample) or a regular penalty-kill role (1:00+ a night) would pass the Cup side.
Comparables at the same age
Who looked like this at 28 to 31
Careers are compared as league-adjusted points per game by age, over the same ages. The comparables below are the closest lines, and what matters is the spread of what they did next, not any single name.
This player so far: age 15 USHS-PA 2.37 → age 16 USHS-PA 3.83 → age 17 High-MA 0.64 → age 18 High-MA 1.00 → age 19 Minor-MA 1.00 → age 20 NCAA 0.39 → age 21 NCAA 0.32 → age 22 NCAA 1.13 → age 23 NCAA 0.71 → age 24 AHL 0.70 → age 25 NHL 0.26 → age 26 NHL 0.18 → age 27 NHL 0.20 → age 28 NHL 0.41 → age 29 NHL 0.30 → age 30 NHL 0.12 → age 31 NHL 0.07
| Player | Distance (lower is closer) | What he did afterwards |
|---|---|---|
| Casey CizikasC · matched at ages 28, 29, 30, 31 | 0.10 | age 32 NHL 0.26 → age 33 NHL 0.33 → age 34 NHL 0.21 → age 35 NHL 0.22 |
| Tyler PitlickC · matched at ages 28, 29, 30, 31 | 0.11 | age 32 NHL 0.12 → age 33 AHL 0.35 → age 34 NHL 0.06 |
| Sam CarrickC · matched at ages 28, 29, 30, 31 | 0.12 | age 32 NHL 0.18 → age 33 NHL 0.25 → age 34 NHL 0.17 |
| Colin BlackwellC · matched at ages 28, 29, 30, 31 | 0.13 | age 32 NHL 0.27 → age 33 NHL 0.21 |
| Scott SabourinR · matched at ages 29, 30, 31 | 0.14 | age 32 AHL 0.17 → age 33 NHL 0.19 |
| Mattias JanmarkC · matched at ages 28, 29, 30, 31 | 0.15 | age 32 NHL 0.23 → age 33 NHL 0.19 |
| Barclay GoodrowC · matched at ages 28, 29, 30, 31 | 0.15 | age 32 NHL 0.10 → age 33 NHL 0.15 |
| Nicolas DeslauriersL · matched at ages 28, 29, 30, 31 | 0.17 | age 32 NHL 0.15 → age 33 NHL 0.07 → age 34 NHL 0.10 → age 35 NHL 0.04 |
Reading it
If most comparables became NHL regulars and their later peak sits well above this player's current line, the numbers say there is room to grow. If most did not, the numbers say the odds are against it. Either way it is what the data shows, not a name chosen to flatter.
Goal archive ·
Every goal, with the league's video
Preseason, regular season and playoffs are kept apart. Each row links to the NHL's own highlight page; no video is hosted here. Where a clip has been reviewed, the reading of it is a model judgement of the frames, not a measurement.
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Availability
Games missed
The NHL publishes no injury feed. This counts games his club played while he did not dress, for any reason: injury, illness, a healthy scratch, a suspension or a trade gap. No cause is claimed.
Either side of that absence: 1.24 points per 60 in the ten games before, 0.53 in the ten after. A rate change over a small sample, not evidence of a lingering injury.
NHL EDGE tracking · 2025-26
Speed, shot and ice
From the NHL's own player-tracking data. Percentiles are the NHL's: the share of the league below this player.