On Friday, Sam and his wife, Madison, welcomed Hudson Lafferty to the world. The time away from the club also helped the Toronto Maple Leafs forward recover from an injury.
On Friday, Sam and his wife, Madison, welcomed Hudson Lafferty to the world. The time away from the club also helped the Toronto Maple Leafs forward recover from an injury.
Sam Lafferty is on cloud nine after becoming a dad for the first time.
The Toronto Maple Leafs forward flew to Arizona to be with his wife Madison last week. On Friday, they welcomed a boy named Hudson.
"It's an amazing feeling that's hard to put into words," Sam said.
Lafferty departed the Leafs last week just in time to get a front-row seat for the delivery.
"My job was pretty easy," he said with a smile.
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Shortly after teammate Ilya Samsonov became a first-time dad last month, Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe revealed that Lafferty was expected to do the same. When the club was in Florida in March, Lafferty said that Madison's due date was right in the sweet spot of when Toronto's regular season would end and their playoffs would begin.
Lafferty hopped on a plane on Saturday and joined the Maple Leafs for the club's first full playoffs practice on Sunday.
But shortly before he left for personal reasons, the Pennsylvania-born Laffferty was dealing with an undisclosed injury. He was scheduled to play against the Florida Panthers on Apr. 10, but the ailment forced an earlier-than-expected debut for Maple Leafs rookie Matthew Knies.
"My body's feeling good and I'm ready to go," Lafferty declared.
Acquired in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks along with defenseman Jake McCabe in February, the 28-year-old bounced around the bottom-six portion of the lineup. At one point, he was asked to suit up as the second-line center. But he didn't really find his form until the last few weeks when he settled in nicely on a line with Zach Aston-Reese and David Kampf.
The trio has been locked into a fourth-line role for the last few weeks and it was evident when they combined for the only goal in a 2-1 overtime loss to the NHL-best Boston Bruins on April 6 while on the road.
"The Kampf line with Aston-Reese and Lafferty may have been our best line in the last six weeks or so, certainly they last month they have certainly come on," Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said.
Since becoming a Leaf, Lafferty has two goals and four assists in 19 games. His combination of speed and defensive ability has been a welcomed addition to a bottom-six forward group.
After falling to the Tampa Bay Lightning in seven games last playoffs, Keefe mentioned in training camp that he was looking for a different identity for the team's fourth line to be better equipped for the postseason.
Following the game in Boston on April 6th, Keefe was asked if he had found it.
"Absolutely."
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