The Scott Laughton trade one year later: Right person, wrong deal for Maple Leafs

NEWARK, NJ — It was the morning earlier than the Toronto Maple Leafs had been internet hosting Mitch Marner for the primary time in late January, and the workforce’s No. 1 power-play unit was squaring off towards the No. 1 penalty-killing unit.

The energy play, led by Auston Matthews, scored as soon as after which once more, moments later.

“That’s two, Laughty!” an exuberant Matthews, grinning extensively, shouted within the face of high penalty killer Scott Laughton. “Two!”

It was a uncommon present of emotion from the Leafs captain, who appeared to talk to one thing important about Laughton: the uplifting impact he is had on the Leafs dressing room.

“He just blends the room together,” Matthew Knies stated earlier than the Leafs performed the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night time, minus a soon-to-be-traded Laughton. “He came in, and I felt like he was on the team for years, and he just joined us. He just has the personality that everyone can connect with and relate to. He’s just fun to be around.”

One year after the trade that introduced him to Toronto (and on the eve of one other one that can quickly ship him elsewhere), it is clear Laughton turned out to be the suitable individual for the Leafs, changing into one of the most well-liked and revered gamers within the dressing room very quickly, however the wrong participant within the wrong trade, too.

Easton Cowan, the Leafs’ youngest participant, has sat near Laughton within the Leafs dressing room all season. And all season, Laughton, with assist from fellow seatmate Max Domi, has tried to impart knowledge on the 20-year-old ahead.

Nothing main, simply ideas for dealing with all of the little intricacies that include enjoying within the NHL. How to organize the physique, for occasion, so it could actually stand up to the 82-game grind. One day, I walked into the dressing room to seek out Laughton and Domi playfully pestering Cowan, guaranteeing he knew what time lunch was that day.

“I try to make them laugh,” Cowan stated. Grinning, he added: “I mean, they’re both pretty scary when they get mad with me. But they’re both very happy guys, (and) obviously I’ve learned not to piss them off.”

They inform him about what it was like for them arising within the NHL, in Laughton’s case as a 20-year-old with the Philadelphia Flyers. What their telephones seemed like again then. How little social media there was in these days.

“It’s just funny hearing different sides of our lives,” Cowan stated.

Laughton remembers what it was like for him as a teenager with the Flyers, sitting beside and studying from Wayne Simmonds, Jakub Voracek, Sean Couturier, Claude Giroux and the late Ray Emery. “I sat beside JVR for a while in the practice rink,” added Laughton, referring to James van Riemsdyk, the previous Leaf and Flyers ahead.

Van Riemsdyk and Laughton occurred to be texting that day in regards to the Batman costume van Riemsdyk sported for his son’s birthday. They had been nonetheless in contact.

“You can be pretty fired up in the room, so it’s nice to have a guy you sit beside and shoot the s— (with) and keep it light,” Laughton stated. “I was sitting beside Cowboy in Long Island (in early January), and we had a great time. We both keep it light, so it’s good that way.”

“It brings me back to when I was 20,” Laughton continued. “And it’s like you’re so wide-eyed. You have no idea what’s going on.” It was “just the little stuff in the room” that he tried to impart on Cowan, even one thing as small as tidying up and serving to out that approach.

The drawback with the trade had nothing to do with character: Laughton wasn’t what the Leafs wanted on the ice. And the fee to get him was substantial: a top-10-protected first-round choose in 2027 (that would change into unprotected in 2028) and younger ahead Nikita Grebenkin, who has produced comparable numbers to Laughton as a 22-year-old bottom-six ahead with Philadelphia this season.

What the Leafs wanted — and paid for — final March was a third-line middle to take over for Domi. But that wasn’t Laughton, who had spent a lot of the season at that time as a winger for the Flyers.

Craig Berube gave it solely 4 video games earlier than he pulled the plug on Laughton because the 3C and pivoted again to Domi.

Laughton finally grew to become the fourth-line middle as an alternative, which would not have been so dangerous if (a) the fee to amass him wasn’t so excessive (and it is not even clear how excessive at this level, given the uncertainty with the choose), and (b) the Leafs did not have already got a fourth-line middle kicking round in David Kämpf. (Kämpf’s contract was later terminated in a messy exit from Toronto final fall.)

Laughton will find yourself enjoying simply 76 video games with the Leafs, together with the playoffs final spring, when he struggled to make an affect.

Scott Laughton has scored eight targets and added 4 assists in 43 video games this season. (Dan Hamilton/Imagn Images)

And though his worth within the character division has been unquestionably excessive, the Leafs could have gotten solely meagre manufacturing out of the 31-year-old: a complete of 10 targets and eight assists. That contains 13 playoff video games wherein Laughton was held and not using a aim and produced solely two assists, enjoying round 14 minutes an evening.

The trade was robust on Laughton initially. Even although he was coming dwelling to Toronto, he was beginning over with a brand new workforce after 12 seasons in Philadelphia.

His first trade within the NHL was tougher than he thought it will be. “It was a big whirlwind,” Laughton recalled. “I was lucky to have family here and things like that. But my wife and son were still in Philly at the time.”

It’s most likely no coincidence that Laughton’s play has ticked up a bit this season.

His greatest contribution was on the penalty kill, the place he performed a high position for one of the league’s high items. He thrived there, partially by profitable a scorching 63 % of his faceoffs.

Berube known as him one of the workforce’s “dependables,” somebody he might belief to kill a penalty and defend a late lead.

Yet, Laughton nonetheless averaged beneath 14 minutes a sport this season — the fewest for him personally in almost a decade — and performed nearly solely on a fourth line that struggled to face out. The Leafs received solely 44 % of the anticipated targets of their minutes.

In what could have been his last sport as a Leaf earlier this week — towards the Flyers, considerably fittingly — he logged lower than 12 minutes. Two nights later, he watched his soon-to-be former workforce play the Devils subsequent to Oliver Ekman-Larsson from the press field, one other trade on the horizon.