Flyers’ Scott Laughton Speaks Highly Of Alain Vigneault. He Can’t Wait For Oskar Lindblom And Nolan Patrick To Return Next Season

Scott Laughton can now breath following an end to a roller coaster playoffs it was for him. Laughton became the 32nd Flyer in Flyers history to potting an overtime winner in game 5. After being a healthy scratch for a few games it was good to see Laughton happy once again. Regardless if how the season ended, hopefully this gives him some much needed confidence in the offseason, “Biggest positive I think just our team play,” Laughton said, “We’re so much better than we’ve been in the past couple years of holding on to leads and coming back in games. Just overall the way we played together. You guys saw it right before the pause. I thought we were really coming together and playing our best hockey. We just couldn’t get back to that level in the bubble. I think that was our biggest positive. I’m not sure about a negative, probably losing and not being able to finish our end goal of winning. All in all, at the end of the day, I thought our regular season was the best since I’ve been here. That was definitely a positive.”

“It’s tough when you go down in a series like that,” the versatile Laughton said, “Obviously a lot of emotions are put into the game. You go into a couple of overtimes and have a couple big wins. Obviously Game 7 didn’t go the way we wanted to. You can’t really blame it on coming back. They were in the same situation. They played in those overtimes. Just need to be better in that situation.”

When thinking of the Flyers overall makeup of their team, some people think of some household names like Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, Sean Couturier, Carter Hart, and Travis Konecny all for good reasons. One name that doesn’t come to some peoples’ minds is Scott Laughton, and he stepped up in a big way in Game 5.

Laughton worked his tail off consistently throughout the entire season. He’s like the energizer bunny, Laughton never takes a shift off. He hits, creates some scoring opportunities, and just busts his butt as our very own Yariv Wolok describes in this player profile video below:

The well, versatile Laughton, does everything the coaching staff asks of him, and does it well. Alain Vigneault wants him to play Wing no problem, he wants him to play Center no problem. Laughton can play in the top six, as well, like he did earlier in the playoffs, as he continues to be the versatile player Vigneault wants him to be. This team is unified and a lot of that has to do with Laughton. He doesn’t want major changes either just like his fellow teammate Ivan Provorov said earlier in the week, “I don’t think many changes need to be made with our group,” Laughton said via Zoom call yesterday.

Laughton continued on Oskar Lindblom and Nolan Patrick, “I think it’s huge. I think you saw with Oskar there in Game 7, he started making some plays and I think he hit a post. He was starting to play the hockey that we saw in the start of the year. I can’t wait to see him come back next year and how he’s going to be. With Patty, I’ve been talking with him. Just excited to see where these two guys are at whenever we come back. To have two of those younger guys to come back and play significant roles for our team, which they do, will be huge for us.”

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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. It makes their opponents think twice, as to what defensemen to put on the ice for matchup purposes.

Vigneault placed Laughton in situations he deserved to be in. Whatever the case maybe for Laughton will do anything the coaching staff asks of him with no complaints, and he is the definition of a true Professional, “I think this year, AV and the coaches gave me a role right from the beginning and I tried to stick to that and play to it,” Laughton said, “That’s definitely the best I’ve felt in my career, just confidence-wise. Being able to move pucks and skating. Definitely a good year for me that I enjoyed playing hockey and being with this group. I think team success has a lot to do with that. The way guys were playing and everyone was coming together. I feel a lot more confident in my game coming into next year.”