The way things are going, we should expect a whole lot of current Philadelphia Flyers playing for other teams this fall. Ivan Provorov has already been dealt and Kevin Hayes, Travis Konecny, and Carter Hart, are all rumored to be drawing interest from other teams but that’s not who we are talking about today.
Last week, multiple reports confirmed that the Flyers are getting calls on forward Scott Laughton. The gutsy-grindy forward with three years remaining on his contract and a moderate cap hit of $3 million, would fit in the lineup of just about every single team.
So, given what we know – Laughton is inexpensive depth and has the physicality and defensive traits that every team needs more of – let’s look at some teams that could certainly be interested in a player like that.
Edmonton Oilers
It seems like the Oilers are just constantly involved in trying to improve their depth beyond the twin-headed Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. The lack of scoring depth is what ended up killing them this season (and many others) so it just makes sense for them to try to squeeze all the juice out of their available cap space to improve that.
Kailer Yamamoto is under contract for just one more season with a $3.1-million cap hit, and the simple swap of Yamamoto-for-Laughton is most definitely what Oilers management prefers in terms of play style. We’re not saying that’s going to be the trade, but there have been rumors and speculation that Yamamoto could be a buyout candidate or at least traded somewhere else.
The best part is that the Oilers might have a couple pieces – young blueliner Philip Broberg, forward prospects like Xavier Bourgault, their 2023 second-round pick and 2024 first-rounder – that could be attractive as part of the return for Philadelphia.
Toronto Maple Leafs
The local boy coming home is just too easy to predict. The Leafs have had interest in Laughton for a while now, according to some reports, and the Flyers have had some eyes on some prospects north of the border as well.
Maybe more than any other team, the Leafs need some security in their lineup. Auston Matthews and William Nylander are in the final year of their contracts, and Mitch Marner and John Tavares just has two seasons left on theirs. Beyond that, there is essentially no forwards under contract. Plus, with 10 pending free agents they have lots of cap space to play around with and new GM Brad Treliving will try to make some sort of splash in his first summer on the job.
Ottawa Senators
The Senators are expected to make a jump and really compete for a playoff spot next season, after slightly improving year after year. Adding Scott Laughton to a group of young forwards – and Claude Giroux – would only make things a little more secure in Canada’s capital.
Ottawa has the prospects to make it work, but unfortunately don’t have a lot of draft picks to dole out. That might be enough to make it work for Flyers GM Danny Briere, but some of their own selections could be nice as well.
Colorado Avalanche
After failing to make it out of the first round the year following them lifting the Stanley Cup, the Avalanche should be feeling some pressure to improve. They took a step back after investing heavily in the championship team; lost Nazem Kadri among other talents, and now have some financial flexibility.
Right now, they have just five forwards under contract for next season. Like Toronto, they need to rebuild the majority of their depth in one single summer by adding what they can. Now free agency isn’t the greatest way to save money doing that, but acquiring a middle-six provider that is cheap and under contract for multiple years? That should be worth a heck of a lot to them, just like how Tanner Jeannot and Brandon Hagel were to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Detroit Red Wings
Detroit has over $30 million in cap space this summer and not a whole lot of holes to fill. They have 10 forwards, four defensemen, and a goalie signed to contract next year, and that doesn’t include the prospects that should make the jump. So with all that space, why not secure more of your forward group with the hope that it would propel them to the playoffs once again?
They clearly have no more time to be rebuilding. Dylan Larkin has committed and they added guys like Andrew Copp and David Perron last year, with a clear timeline for contention. They should at least bring a guy along to let some of the young guys play with that has experience and they have loads and loads of draft picks to go get that dude.
Carolina Hurricanes
Another team that has buckets of cap space but don’t really need to do a whole lot with it is Carolina. They have other issues coming down the line – Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen are free agents next summer, and they have about a billion restricted free agents at the same time – but for short-term issues, the Hurricanes could use some depth contributors.
Laughton just feels like someone that could gel right in with the Canes and not miss a beat when it comes to play hard and fast and meaningful hockey.
Carolina needs and wants to finally cement some sort of postseason success after getting so close so often, and three years of Laughton sure seems like a decent player to get for that purpose in addition to their stars.
No matter what, almost every team could use a contributor that performs well in all three zones and can be someone relied upon to be a third-line center or a checking second-line winger on a good team. It just depends on how much they want to give up for Laughton and if the Flyers think it is worth it to get rid of a large part of the heart of this team.
