Rumour: Senators Interested in Flyers' Scott Laughton
According to a report from The Fourth Period’s Anthony Di Marco, the Philadelphia Flyers are listening to offers for winger Scott Laughton.
Di Marco tweeted that the Flyers have reportedly "turned down late first-round picks in offers for Laughton, which is indicative of how much they value the player.”
Piggybacking that initial report, The Fourth Period’s Dave Pagnotta indicated that “Ottawa is among the teams that have expressed serious interest in Laughton.”
The 29-year-old Laughton is a left-winger who tallied 18 goals and 43 points in 78 games last season. Having played parts of 10 seasons in the league, it was his best offensive season by far. His previous regular season highs were 13 goals in 2019-20 (49 games) and 32 points in 2018-19. In 512 career games, Laughton has amassed 82 goals and 199 points.
The offensive production has been relatively modest, especially for someone who is about to enter his 30s and has exited what is historically the prime years of an NHL player’s career.
Looking at the underlying numbers, Scott Laughton’s not really an analytical darling.
Hockeyviz.com’s visuals listed Laughton as having an isolated positive effect on his team offensively while having a below-average impact defensively.
Evolving-Hockey’s data corroborated Hockeyviz’s assessment. According to their proprietary total offence and defence metrics, Laughton had an offensive rating of 2.5 while his defensive rating was -3.2. Using their ‘goals above replacement’ and ‘wins above replacement’ metrics, both values placed Laughton as a sub-replacement level player this season (-1.8 GAR, -0.3 WAR).
Across most of Laughton’s season on Hockeyviz, he’s historically played at a modest impact level from both an offensive and defensive perspective.
The key question is why the Senators would want Laughton.
It all probably has to do with the team’s depth on the left wing. After Alex Formenton had his 2022-23 season wiped out due to what can only be perceived as a function of the ongoing Hockey Canada scandal and Alex DeBrincat recently submitted his list of preferred destinations to be traded to, Ottawa’s long-term depth at the position is currently limited to Ridly Greig and Brady Tkachuk.
If the Senators trade DeBrincat, they will need someone to fill the void and without any realistic internal options capable of stepping into that role, it makes sense to look outside the organization. The problem is that Laughton is not a very ambitious add and if the organization views Laughton as a third-liner a year or two down the road, what is the point? You already have Ridly Greig who projects to fill that role capably and at a lesser cost.
And, all that said before even considering the sizable opportunity cost that the Flyers are asking for to bring him into the fold. Having dealt their 2022 and 2023 first-round draft selections in separate deals, the Senators are without a pick in this year’s draft. In fact, they don’t have a pick until the fourth round.
Trading more future assets for Laughton with an already thin system seems needless considering the short and medium-term implications. If Laughton does have anything going for him, it is his character and intangibles. He wears an alternate captain letter for the Flyers and he does have a history with head coach D.J. Smith going back to their time together in Oshawa from 2012-2014. That management keeps dipping into the well that ties their coaching staff to former players is not that surprising. Overly relying on the opinions and input of their coaching staff is a product of their small pro scouting staff. It could be purely coincidental in this case, however, because after listening to Pierre Dorion’s recent media availabilities, it seems like it is far from a foregone conclusion that Smith returns as the head coach.
More than the thought of adding Laughton, what is really intriguing about Ottawa’s alleged interest in the winger is that he’s an NHL player who would probably be expected to fill DeBrincat’s top-six role. If we are to read into things a bit here, maybe this reported interest in Laughton means that the Senators are more comfortable taking a futures-laden deal for DeBrincat. If true, I believe that’s a positive sign. Take the best value back in a trade, even if it means taking a return that is built around prospects and draft picks.
Of course, if the Senators take draft picks back, there is the possibility of moving some of those picks out in separate deals to acquire players like Laughton. Hopefully, in this instance, the team recognizes that the value of the player does not outweigh the reported asking price. If the Flyers are intent on landing something more valuable than a late first-rounder, the Senators would do well to pass. There are far more ambitious ways to round out the top-six than target a player like Scott Laughton.
Other News and Notes:
The Hockey News’ Steve Warne is reporting that he has a source close to DeBrincat who has indicated that the player is more than comfortable re-signing in Ottawa.
Steve Apostolopoulos informed the NHL, the Melnyk estate and Galatioto Sports Partners that he was pulling his bid from the Senators’ sale due to the frustrations borne out of the process. It was presumed that Apostolopoulos’ bid was the highest of the four. It sounds like the negotiations for the preferred bidder are down to Michael Andlauer and the Kimel brothers.