Leafs and Flyers make ideal trade partners for late summer deal

The Toronto Maple Leafs have long had interest in veteran forward Scott Laughton, but the Philadelphia Flyers have held onto their locker-room leader for dear life. Currently, their second-longest tenured player, Laughton, enters the 2024-25 season with an additional year of term on his team-friendly contract and it begs the question of whether or not the Flyers will finally budge.

Philadelphia has failed to qualify for the post-season for the last 4 years and 5 of the last 6 seasons. With Daniel Briere at the helm, the Flyers announced that they were undergoing a rebuild but as we enter the second year of their "new era of Orange" they have yet to make the monumental tear-down moves that are synonymous with rebuilds.

Laughton has garnered interest from several contending clubs over the last few seasons and the Flyers even rejected reported offers that included first round picks ahead of the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. The interest in the veteran forward has only increased and the Maple Leafs have been linked on numerous occasions but have yet to bend or budge on their reported asking price.

This will be the final year where the Flyers can hold onto the fact that Laughton still carries term as he will be an unrestricted free agent in 2026. With 2 full seasons remaining, Laughton's value will never be higher and his 3 million dollar cap hit is extremely friendly considering his impact on and off the ice.

He can play both centre and the wing positions, he can add 10-15 goals with 35-45 points, is a very good and aggressive penalty killer, has some experience on the man advantage, is close to 50% at the face-off dot for his career, and is a responsible two-way forward on and off the puck. He registered a career-high in goals (18), points (43), and ATOI (18:17) in 2022-23 and followed that up with 39 points last season in almost 3 minutes less ice-time per game with the return of Sean Couturier impacting his role.

The Flyers have also had long interest in Nicholas Robertson, which would make for the perfect trade should Briere and company finally decide it's time to move on from the former first rounder from the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. Everyone within the organization holds Laughton to the highest regard and that's partially why they have yet to move him, despite the interest and the reported trade offers that would have netted the Flyers some solid assets.

The Flyers currently lack centre depth, which would be another reason why they might hold onto him but if the Leafs offered Robertson and a 2nd or 3rd round pick, it should at least make them think twice about it. Conversely, Laughton would slide perfectly on the third line as the centre for Max Domi and Calle Jarnkrok, he would improve the penalty kill, and give them a nasty edge - the type of edge, they've long been chasing for.

Source for Scott Laughton's statistics: Hockey-Reference
Scott Laughton stats and bio