Photo Credit: Shaylah Rice
When thinking of the Flyers overall makeup of their team, some people think of some household names like Sean Couturier, Cam Atkinson, Carter Hart, and Travis Konecny all for good reasons. One name that doesn’t come to some peoples’ minds is Scott Laughton, “To play 400 games for the Flyers and be with this organization since 2012, it’s special to me and my family,” Laughton said following the Arizona Coyotes game. “I love it here.” Now tonight he suits up for his 500th career NHL game, something pretty impressive.
Laughton has been working his tail off consistently throughout this season, no matter where the coaching staff asks him to play. If they want him to play Center…no problem…play the wing…no problem…top line…no problem. He’s as versatile as they come, and Laughton does his job admirably.
As far as Laughts’ game, I don’t need to explain it to you guys. He leaves it on the ice all the time. You can tell the spots I’m putting him in, we depend on him. Does he make mistakes? Yeah, but I’m going to go with him. I have a good feeling of who he is. He’s done some really good things for us.” – John Tortorella said in November
Laughton’s like the energizer bunny, he never takes a shift off. He hits, creates some scoring opportunities, and just busts his butt every single shift. Laughton is one of those players that every team covets, mainly because of his versatility to play any position, and move up and down the lineup if need be, “Kind of laugh every year since I’ve been here, we start him on the fourth line and we almost have internal bets just to put a timeframe on how long it will take for him to move up into the top nine every year,” Flyers’ General Manager Chuck Fletcher said earlier in the year.
Fletcher continued, “That’s Scotty Laughton’s life, I guess. He handles it well. You got to give him credit. One day he’s second line left wing. Next day, he’s fourth line left wing and then he’s third line center. He gives AV that flexibility where you trust him in any situation. You can move him around and it doesn’t impact his play. He’s never pouts and always has a smile on his face. I think he knows that eventually he’ll get the minutes that he traditionally gets.”
One thing every NHL team needs for success are solid bottom 9 and 12 lines. Even though, Laughton may not pot 20-25 goals, he is still very useful, and really makes the bottom 9 and 12 lines thrive. It just makes this young Flyers team that much more difficult to matchup with, and It makes their opponents think twice, as to what defensemen to put on the ice for matchup purposes.
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Laughton is a player that most teams covet. He’s a professional, he’s a good penalty killer, but most importantly he’s his versatile as they come. Congratulations on game number 500, and cheers to many more.
