Lafferty had nine points in 28 games, both in the regular season and playoffs with Toronto.

The Maple Leafs have gotten some cap relief by trading one of their depth forwards.

Toronto traded Sam Lafferty to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a 2024 fifth-round pick.

The Maple Leafs acquired Lafferty in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks in early February. They also received Jake McCabe and a conditional fifth-round pick in 2025 while sending Joey Anderson, Pavel Gogolev, a conditional 2025 first-round pick, and a 2026 second-round pick to Chicago.

Lafferty was likely to be one of the odd players out during Maple Leafs training camp. With a number of depth players, both on the team and coming up from the Marlies, trying to crack the roster, it felt as though something like this was always a possibility.

"It's out of my hands at this point," the 28-year-old said on Saturday night of how he'll handle the next 24 hours. "Just going to spend some time with family and not really think about it too much."

Instead of losing Lafferty for nothing on waivers, Toronto made a move to accumulate more draft capital for the future. With this trade, it will give the Maple Leafs more cap flexibility ahead of the NHL roster submission deadline at 5 p.m. on Monday.

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