Amateur Lafferty spent his freshman and most of his sophomore year at
Hollidaysburg Area High School before applying to prep schools. He originally committed to attend Shady Side Academy before a spot opened at
Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. Following his graduation in 2014, Lafferty was drafted by the Penguins in the
2014 NHL entry draft.
Collegiate In spite of being drafted, Lafferty played four seasons of college hockey with the
Brown Bears men's ice hockey team from 2014 to 2018. During his freshman season, Lafferty played in all 31 games and finished fourth on the team with eight assists and fifth with four goals. While playing hockey as a freshman, Lafferty also competed in Division I golf and qualified for the 2015 Ivy League Men's Golf Championship. The following year, Lafferty decreased offensively and finished the season with four goals and six assists for 10 points. He finished the season leading the Bears in scoring with 35 points in all 31 games played and ranked first on the team in assists. He was also named Team MVP and selected as a semifinalist for the Walter Brown Award as the best American-born college hockey player in New England. Lafferty's scoring prowess continued through his senior season as he recorded eight goals and 14 assists for 22 points. he began the season being named one of 20 candidates for the
2017–18 Senior CLASS Award. Following this, Lafferty was named the ECAC Player of the Week in February after he recorded four points in two games to help Brown to sweep
Harvard and Dartmouth. In the same month, Lafferty also scored his first collegiate
hat-trick on February 23, 2018, against Harvard. He finished the 2017–18 season being selected for the Second Team All-Ivy and ECAC All-Academic Team.
Professional On March 7, 2018, Lafferty concluded his collegiate career by signing an amateur tryout agreement with the
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the
American Hockey League (AHL) for the remainder of the
2017–18 season. He also signed a two-year,
entry-level contract with the
Pittsburgh Penguins of the
National Hockey League (NHL) that began in the
2018–19 season. Upon joining Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Lafferty recorded his first professional goal on April 3, 2018, against the
Hershey Bears. After attending Pittsburgh's 2018 training camp, he was re-assigned to their AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. In his first professional season, Lafferty scored 49 points in 70 games to become the teams' second-leading scorer. On January 5, 2022, Lafferty was traded to the
Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for
Alexander Nylander. During the following
2022–23 NHL season, while in the midst of breakout season in establishing new offensive highs, Lafferty was traded by the rebuilding Blackhawks to the
Toronto Maple Leafs, along with
Jake McCabe, and two future draft selections in exchange for Toronto's
2025 first-round pick (conditional), Toronto's second-round pick in
2026,
Joey Anderson and
Pavel Gogolev on February 27, 2023. He finished the season with 12 goals and 27 points in 70 games between the Blackhawks and the Maple Leafs. In the
playoffs, Lafferty added a goal in nine games. At the end of the Maple Leafs 2023 training camp, Lafferty was traded to the
Vancouver Canucks for a fifth-round selection in the
2024 NHL entry draft on October 8, 2023. On June 26, 2024, as a pending
unrestricted free agent, the Canucks traded Lafferty back to the Blackhawks, alongside
Ilya Mikheyev and a second-round pick in
2027, in exchange for a fourth-round pick in 2027. Unable to agree to terms with the Blackhawks, on July 1, 2024, Lafferty signed as a free agent to a two-year, $4 million contract with the
Buffalo Sabres. After just one season with the Sabres, having recorded career lows scoring output, Lafferty was traded in a return to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for a 2026 sixth-round pick on July 1, 2025. ==Personal life==