Long before either made it to the NHL, Sam Lafferty and Riley Stillman met and bonded while working with a Phoenix-based trainer.
This winter, with Lafferty looking for a change of scenery after a rough start this season with the Penguins, that friendship helped lead him to and integrate him into the Blackhawks.
“We hang out quite a bit,” Lafferty said recently. “We’re really good friends off the ice. It has definitely made my transition to Chicago that much easier.”
The Penguins and Lafferty first talked about the possibility of a trade back in November, once it became clear he didn’t fit well in their roster this year. The two parties ended up “just waiting for the right time” — which turned out to be his early January swap for Alex Nylander — but Lafferty’s agent, Pete Rutili, had told him from the start the Hawks were a “possible really good fit.”
That allowed Lafferty to reach out to Stillman — whom he still spends most summers training with back in Phoenix — for some inside intel.
“He just told me, ‘The guys are great, and they’re trying to build something here,’” Lafferty said. “It was something I was just excited to hopefully be a part of.”
Although Lafferty was a hometown product for the Penguins, having grown up less than two hours away in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, he wasn’t heartbroken to leave. It had been a “challenging” year there, and most of his family now lives in Montana, from which Chicago is a significantly easier flying destination.
And Lafferty has clicked quickly with the Hawks — even with Stillman currently sidelined for another two-to-three weeks with his left shoulder injury.
Despite recording only one point in his first eight games in a red sweater, Lafferty’s elite skating and strong work ethic has been noticeable, and interim coach Derek King has grown comfortable using him in a second-line role the past few weeks.
“It’s that speed and energy,” King said Saturday. “[He] bangs bodies, pushes the other team back. He keeps them on their toes, too. He’s like a bigger version of [Brandon] Hagel, [albeit] maybe not quite as skilled. ... I like him. I could use a couple more players like him and Hagel.”
Added Ryan Carpenter on Sunday: “[He brings] a lot of speed. He’s really fast out there and creates a lot with his feet and works really hard. ... He definitely pushed back ‘D’ and wins a lot of pucks, which is nice; it creates a lot of space.”
Since his debut Jan. 13, Lafferty leads the Hawks with a remarkable 65.0% high-danger scoring-chance ratio at even strength and ranks second among team forwards with a 52.8% overall scoring-chance ratio.
He has become a key part of the penalty kill, too, leading team forwards in PK ice time since Jan. 13 with an average of 2:18 per game. It has helped that the Hawks’ PK system is “pretty similar” to the Penguins’.
He’s a pending unrestricted free agent this summer. A consistently impressive second half of the season could convince the Hawks that Lafferty, who turns 27 in March, is worth re-signing.
“It has been awesome, just [being] given a lot of opportunity,” he said. “I’m just trying to make the most of it and play to my strengths as much as I can. It has been really fun for me.”
Note: Ex-Hawks coach Jeremy Colliton will now serve as Canada’s head coach at the Olympics after Claude Julien, for whom Colliton was to be an assistant, fractured his ribs during a training camp accident in Switzerland.
“That’s great for him,” said King, who added they’ve exchanged occasional texts since the coaching change. “That’ll be nice for him to get back into things, and he’ll do a good job.”
