The Pittsburgh Penguins have had success with later-round draft picks who have become contributors after playing college hockey and spending time in the minor leagues. One of them is Lafferty, a center from nearby Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. He arrived in the NHL in 2019-20 after the Penguins selected him in the fourth round (No. 113) of the 2014 NHL Draft, following his third season at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts.

Lafferty played the next four seasons at Brown University before signing with Pittsburgh on March 7, 2018. He was assigned to Wilkes-Barre Scranton of the American Hockey League for the remainder of the 2017-18 season and remained in the AHL in 2018-19, scoring 49 points (13 goals, 36 assists) in 70 games.

He earned his first chance to play in the NHL and made the most of it, scoring his first goal, at the Minnesota Wild, on Oct. 12, 2019, four days after making his League debut against the Winnipeg Jets. He finished his first NHL season with 13 points (six goals, seven assists) in 50 games.

Lafferty was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks for forward Alex Nylander on Jan. 5, 2022. He had 32 points (15 goals, 17 points) in 97 regular season games for Chicago before he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 27, 2023. He was traded to the Vancouver Canucks on Oct. 8, 2023, for a fifth-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft.

Lafferty returned to the Blackhawks when he and Ilya Mikheyev were traded by the Canucks on June 26, 2024, for a fourth-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft. He then signed a two-year, $4 million contract with the Buffalo Sabres on July 1, 2024, and was again traded to the Blackhawks on July 1, 2025.