The start of Sam Lafferty’s Blackhawks tenure wasn’t ideal.
One day after his Jan. 5 trade from the Penguins, he arrived in Chicago and tested positive for COVID-19, leaving him stuck in a hotel room in an unfamiliar city and absent from what was supposed to be his first road trip with the Hawks.
“It was pretty crazy, a tough bounce,” he said Friday. “But luckily, it was only five days. I should be in the clear for the next 90 days or so, so [it’s] nice to get it out of the way in that sense.”
(Lafferty referenced a rule where the NHL does not resume testing players who recover from COVID until 90 days later.)
The 26-year-old forward finally made his Hawks debut Thursday against the Canadiens — although it was heavily overshadowed by Lukas Reichel’s simultaneous debut — and played a sizable 15:17 of ice time.
He’d averaged just 8:43 per game during his 10 appearances earlier this season with the Penguins, despite generating a solid 57.1% scoring-chance ratio at even strength with them. He continued that Thursday by being on the ice for five Hawks chances and just two Canadiens chances.
[The trade was] still bit of a shock to the system, but when I heard it was Chicago, I was super excited,” he said. “Just a fresh start is huge. I can come in here and hopefully carve out a role with this team. Everyone’s been really good to me so far, so I want to return the favor and play some good hockey.”
Lafferty started Thursday on the fourth line but was bumped up to the third-line center role, in between Henrik Borgstrom and surging Philipp Kurashev, on Saturday against the Ducks. He also has immediately stepped in on the penalty kill.
Interim coach Derek King views Lafferty as best-suited at center, citing his strong skating as the main reason why, and Lafferty himself also named his skating and speed as the “cornerstones” of his game.
“If I’m given an opportunity to show what I can do, I’m looking forward to that,” he added. “Hopefully we can keep it rolling here.”
