After Brown University was eliminated from the ECAC hockey tournament on Sunday, Sam Lafferty has signed his two-year entry-level contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Lafferty played four years at Brown, and could have become an unrestricted free agent this summer. Because of his age, a two-year contract was the only thing Pittsburgh could offer.
Selected in the fourth round in 2014, Lafferty has led Brown in scoring the past two seasons and will join the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for the remainder of the season on an amateur tryout. The 6’1″ winger is an excellent athlete that could have a future as a bottom-six player for the Penguins, though they’ll try to coax even more than that out of him at the minor league level. Pittsburgh has had a good run with college players of late, and hope the 23-year old Lafferty is just the latest example to make a quick transition to professional hockey.
Mark Divver of the Providence Journal broke the news on Twitter ahead of time.