Meet new Maple Leaf Sam Lafferty: A two-sport athlete who’s a ‘perfect fit’ in Toronto

Sam Lafferty is standing in the corner of the Maple Leafs dressing room trying to improve my golf swing, and it’s not working out well.

My problem is that I can’t stop slicing the ball off the tee. Lafferty, the newly acquired Maple Leafs forward, has more pressing things on his mind.

Whereas some Leafs offer more golf instruction (Jake Muzzin’s advice: “You’re probably dipping on the back a little bit. Activate the core. That will keep you more stable. Guaranteed”), Lafferty, who played golf at Brown University, is more comfortable relying on his innate understanding of the game.

“Whenever it ends up where you want it to, try to repeat that,” Lafferty offered with a smile.

“I was expecting a little more,” I tell him.

“I’m more about hitting the shot. The tactical side … that can get in my own head,” Lafferty said.

Perhaps there was a time when Lafferty would have been more eager to talk the finer points of a reporter’s golf swing in detail. But in the span of a little over a month, Lafferty’s life has changed completely and will continue to. Golf is an important part of Lafferty’s identity, yes, but not for now.

After finding his groove as a spirited NHL forward on a struggling Blackhawks team, setting career highs in goals and points while also playing a physical game, Lafferty was traded to the Leafs just ahead of the trade deadline. Joining the Leafs on a road trip meant he didn’t set foot in Toronto until a full 10 days after the trade.

He promises to have a regular role on a Leafs team that will play in what could be a franchise-altering playoff run.

And in the middle of that run, Lafferty will become a father. His wife, Madison, is due to give birth to a baby boy in early April.

“It’s all been a whirlwind,” Lafferty said.

As Lafferty tries to wrap his head around his new life, he’ll also try to bring that same high-energy game to a Leafs team that will need it against an experienced Lightning team in the playoffs.

“The more comfortable he gets, he’s just going to keep climbing,” said Lafferty’s brother-in-law, Sabres defenceman Riley Stillman, who has known him for nearly 10 years. “He’s done nothing but gotten better and better. He’s a perfect fit for Toronto.”

Lafferty first picked up a golf club when he was six, and at the same time, he began playing hockey. His love of both games grew and the balance of playing one sport in the autumn and winter and the other in the spring and summer only benefitted him.

For many professional hockey players, golf is a popular pastime. But Lafferty was talented enough that golf was never going to remain simply a hobby. He found as he continued to play both hockey and golf, he became a more well-rounded athlete.

“The two opposites in each game complement each other well,” Lafferty said.

After being drafted by the Penguins in the fourth round of the 2014 NHL Draft, Lafferty juggled playing both on Brown’s golf and hockey teams. As his offensive game improved at Brown, he found his golf game became more and more consistent. Yet his drive to improve only continued.

In the summer of 2021, near his hometown of Hollidaysburg, Pa., Lafferty attempted to qualify for the U.S. Amateur tournament at Sunnehanna Country Club, where he is a member. That consistency got him through day one of the qualifiers as he shot a 75. Day two was far less kind and his 77 saw him eliminated.

Lafferty spends his offseasons in Arizona, where there is no shortage of excellent golf courses and opportunities to play with Stillman.

“He gives me five strokes every game and it’s demeaning how much he still beats me by,” Stillman said.

Cliché as it might be, Lafferty knows his time on the golf course this summer could wane once his son arrives. Like any expectant parent, Lafferty is juggling plenty of thoughts.

“It’s a lot,” Lafferty, a man of few words, said.

Madison remains in Arizona with her family where she will give birth. The Leafs have told him, understandably, he can take the time he needs to be near Madison whenever she goes into labour. While it would be fair to Lafferty if he were struggling to deal with the multiple changes in his life, those who know him believe his grounded demeanour has served him well.

“(Lafferty) has done a great job of taking everything in stride,” Stillman said.

It can be easy to forget that players like Lafferty often have to deal with expectations outside of the pressures they face on the ice come playoff time. Lafferty considers that notion briefly but isn’t the type to look for sympathy. Instead, Lafferty can’t wait for his life to change for the better.

“There’s a lot that I’m not going to be used to,” Lafferty said. “But the idea of just spending time, quality time with my son, I’m looking forward to it.”

Perhaps surprisingly, Lafferty is using the heightened expectations he has over the next few weeks of his life as fuel. With his all-world wheels and willingness to use his body, he’s a player who has only one speed: full out. And so even amidst the uncertainty over what comes next for him, he hasn’t been distracted at all. Just the opposite: When his adrenaline starts pumping, given his style of play, he’s even more impactful.

“I’m trying to soak everything in,” Lafferty said. “It’s going to be a lot, but I’m excited for all of it.”

His life won’t just change off the ice. After just one postseason game for the Penguins, for the first time in his career, Lafferty will likely play in a full playoff series.

His versatility as a player made him desirable to the Leafs for the playoffs. Lafferty began his tenure in Toronto on the wing but with an injury to Ryan O’Reilly, he moved into a pivotal centre role. In his first game at centre, a 4-3 win over the Devils on March 7, Lafferty showed off his high-end speed by catching two Devils players on their heels, cleanly entering the offensive zone and laying off a perfect pass to a trailing William Nylander ahead of the Leafs’ opening goal.

“I thought we really saw signs of what Lafferty is capable of in terms of putting the other team on their heels with his speed. He has done that at different times in earlier games with us but more off the puck getting up ice and applying pressure,” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said of Lafferty after the win over the Devils.

It’s Lafferty’s ability to use his speed in a variety of ways, whether that’s through the neutral zone with the puck or to quickly apply pressure on the opposition on the forecheck, that could make him valuable in a bottom-six role come playoff time. Should Keefe move O’Reilly into a third-line centre role, Lafferty’s speed could play off O’Reilly’s smarts on the wing. Yet the Leafs like what Lafferty was able to do against top opposition lines as a centre for the Blackhawks. Perhaps he sticks as the spark in a third-line centre role between Alex Kerfoot and Calle Järnkrok, two players who also rely heavily on their hockey IQ to influence games.

“His style of game, his identity, the way he is willing to buy-in to whatever system (the Leafs) want to play: If you give him a job, he’ll be successful. He’s willing to do anything,” Stillman said.

That “anything,” Stillman references while widening his eyes is his physicality. Lafferty plays bigger than his 6-foot-1 frame dictates, which, ahead of a game between the two family members on Monday, meant Stillman would have to keep his eyes open on the ice.

“Just because I’m his brother-in-law and we’re good friends,” Stillman said, “that doesn’t mean anything today.”

Stillman knows that pace and physicality are going to be important to the Leafs come playoff time, even as Lafferty juggles his other newfound responsibilities.

Life has come at Lafferty fast, yes. But that’s the pace he’s comfortable with.

“I just want to bring my speed and energy,” Lafferty said, “wherever I am in the lineup.”

(Photo: John E. Sokolowski / USA Today)