Like A Fine Wine, The Flyers’ Scott Laughton Only Gets Better With Age

It has been a long, hard journey to reach this point for the now 26-year-old Scott Laughton. It may not seem like that long ago for some, but Scott was drafted by the Flyers way back in 2012 in the first round, with the 20^th overall selection.  This comes after this (former) Oshawa General had quite the year in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL); But Laughton was far from an instant success. 

This wasn’t a result of the Flyers not giving him every opportunity though: Just after being drafted Laughton was given 5 games with the Flyers where he went scoreless before the team decided to send him back to the OHL. Once he was back in Oshawa, he managed to post a 1.14 point-per-game average for the Generals where he scored 56 points in just 49 games played. 

Then, after camp the next season the Flyers still did not think he had what it takes to make it in the NHL. So, they again sent Scott back to Oshawa for the 2013-2014 season where he managed to best his career highs in the junior ranks by scoring 87 points in just 54 games played! This meant he was operating at a 1.61 point-per-game pace. 

Once that season ended, Laughton had aged out of the junior ranks and saw his first full season as a pro. He split the 2014-2015 season between the Flyers and the team’s American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate- the Phantoms. The reason for the split was that Laughton was only able to net 2 goals and 4 assists, for 6 points in 31games played with the Flyers that year. By this point in his career the fans around Philadelphia were getting a little restless with his development. Scott was a 1^st round pick that was expected to produce, and he had yet to do so. That awful label of “a bust” was starting to be thrown into conversations whenever his name came up. But how could you blame the fans: This kind of time was to be expected for a mid- to late-round draft pick to develop but not a first-round pick. 

It was not until the following season of 2015-2016 that Laughton got to spend his first full season up with the Flyers, and by this point Flyers fans were already calling for the team to trade Laughton and just cut their losses, and I don’t believe that this writer was saying anything different at that point. Laughton still managed just single digit numbers in the goal department, even though he played in 71 games for Philadelphia that year.  

With management and fans alike fed up with his lack of improvement, he found himself once again back in the AHL ranks for the 2016- 2017 season, where he seemed to produce rather well for the Phantoms. 

Kudos must be given to the Flyers brass for not giving up on Scott to this point because over the course of that off season something finally clicked. His skills had finally begun to ripen and the plays he began to make were that much sweeter. Laughton began to play with more heart than anyone on the ice- giving it his all on each and every shift. This is something that fans in Philly tend to take note of and thoroughly appreciate.  

Continuing similarly over the next few seasons, Scott started to develop into the spark plug he is today. Although his role largely still saw him playing on the bottom six, his solid play defensively saw him getting more and more ice time via things like the penalty killing unit.       

However, it was not until the Flyers introduced their latest head coach, the forward-thinking Alain Vigneault (AV), that this underrated player’s talents were really brought to the limelight. Within Vigneault’s new system a 200ft player like Laughton was sure to thrive and, with the new system in place, it became clear that there might just be more to Scott’s game. The versatility that he possessed was quickly called upon when the Flyers’ winger Oskar Lindblom found out about his cancer diagnosis last season. At that point, his new head coach came to Scott and asked him to play wing. 

This proved to be a great move because in just 49 games played last season (due to COVID) Laughton was able to surpass his career high in goals with 13 on the year. 

With this current season well underway it would seem Laughton has once again taken his game to another level. With Vigneault’s other favorite chess piece (Tyler Pitlick) taking his talents to another team via free agency, Laughton’s stock has only risen that much more. As a result, Laughton was forced to step up once again when his team needed him in just the second game of the season when Flyers’ star center Sean Couturier went down with an early injury.  Scott was then asked to take on the role as the team’s 3^rd line center with wingers James van Riemsdyk and Joel Farabee at his side. With this opportunity being served to him on a silver platter, Scott has not disappointed. In fact, most fans would argue that this new line combination has flat out been the team’s most productive line since Couturier’s injury. With Laughton manning the dots once again, his “never take a shift off” mentality has allowed him to score 4 goals and 5 assists, for 9 points thus far this season. When it comes to his new line, that is only the tip of the iceberg:  His line mates are buzzing right along as well, sitting in 1^st and 2^nd place in points on the team! With van Riemsdyk’s 18 points on the season thus far having him among the league’s leaders, it is proving pretty hard not to feed off the absolute electrifying energy that Laughton secretes from his pores (If you’ll recall, this time last year Van Riemsdyk was in AV’s doghouse). 

But here is where his play lately creates a problem: Laughton is an unrestricted free agent at season’s end and will most certainly be in line for a raise from his current salary of just $2.3 million dollars a year. The Flyers would normally have no problem finding the money to pay such a player, but this off season looks to be a rather costly one for the Flyers with Carter Hart, Travis Sanheim, and Nolan Patrick headlining the list of restricted free agents- and still more tough decisions to be made in the form of other unrestricted free agents Michael Raffl, and Brain Elliott. For that reason, you should not be shocked this off season if Scott does decide to uproot from Philadelphia and move on to another team that can both pay him what he is worth and give him a larger role on their team. To prevent this the Flyers’ general manager Chuck Fletcher will have to work his magic in order to keep all these desirable pieces here on Broad Street. Will Scott continue the tear he is on and play his way right out of a contract the Flyers can afford? Time will tell, but for now just sit back and enjoy what this late bloomer is bringing to the Flyers on a nightly basis and worry about the future when the time comes!