3 Toronto Maple Leafs Who Have Not Earned Playoff Ice Time
By James Tanner
Toronto Maple Leafs Who Have Not Earned Playoff Ice Time: # 3 Sam Lafferty
Sam Lafferty was acquired in a trade from the Chicago Blackhawks at the deadline.
Fortunately for the Leafs, that trade included the stellar Jake McCabe, because Sam Lafferty is not working out. He’s a fast, versatile player, but the Leafs have better options because he has not performed since being acquired.
In 19 games, he has just two goals and six assists. He is about as crucial to the success of the Toronto Maple Leafs as Michael Rappaport is to Talib Kweli’s on the classic album Quality.
Lafferty wasn’t brought into score, so you could forgive the lack of scoring if he did anything else, but he doesn’t.
The Leafs possess the puck just 41% of the time when he’s on the ice. Of the 41 skaters the Leafs have used this year, Lafferty has the 39th worst stats and has played by far the most games of all their bad players.
43% of the shots.
42% of the scoring chances.
42% expected goals. (all stat naturalstattrick.com).
There is no way the Leafs should play Lafferty when they have Wayne Simmonds on the roster, let alone Pontus Holmberg, Matthew Knies, Wayne Simmonds, or Bobby McMann.