How Flyers Scott Laughton had a career year by remaining the same core player

Scott Laughton’s path to becoming a quality NHLer was far from a straightforward one.

He appeared in his first five games with the Flyers at 19, just months after being taken in the 2012 first round. Even after being sent back to junior for the next two seasons, Laughton’s stock continued to rise as his scoring in the OHL improved — aided by the fact that Philadelphia’s prospect pipeline at the time was extraordinarily thin. But his first real crack at locking down a full-time NHL job didn’t go as planned. After two years of relatively underwhelming play where Laughton was in the weird in-between of not being dangerous enough offensively to be an NHL scorer but not well-rounded enough to be a bottom-sixer, the Flyers sent him back to the minors at 22 for a full season with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The task? Learn how to be a role player.

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Laughton could have chafed under the demotion and the directive, convinced that the organization simply had it all wrong and it was opportunity he lacked more than anything else. Instead, he remade his entire style of play, and when he returned to Philadelphia in 2017-18, Laughton quickly established himself as a coach’s favorite, willing to take on any duty, no matter how limited the ice time, and do it as well as possible. Slowly but surely, Laughton’s offense came back. Not in the sense of making him a dynamic NHL scorer, but by 2019-20, he was regularly producing in the 30-40 point range over an 82-game slate.

Suddenly, Laughton wasn’t merely a solid fourth-liner. He was a jack-of-all-trades forward who could toil as the team’s 4C for a few weeks and then play wing on Line 2 for a few games and not look out of place. Which made it little surprise when new head coach John Tortorella quickly took a liking to Laughton in 2022-23, giving him the most ice time of his career and a leadership letter for his jersey — the only such letter Tortorella handed out in his debut season in Philadelphia.

Laughton not only fits with the Flyers now; he’s arguably the team’s leader, and a standard-bearer for the type of culture that Tortorella and the rest of the new triumvirate of leadership are looking to instill in the rest of the group. Now, they need to decide whether Laughton has more value to them in that role, or if the club’s pivot to a rebuild demands that they look to cash out on one of the organization’s few developmental success stories of the past decade.

When looking at Laughton’s end-of-season numbers now, it’s easy to forget that the only real highlight of his first two months of 2022-23 was getting that “A” stitched on his uniform.

Laughton had just seven points when November ended, his last goal coming way back on Oct. 27. He had suffered a shoulder injury which knocked him out of action for four contests, but when Laughton was playing, he wasn’t making much of an impact. And that was in spite of the fact that Tortorella had granted him a larger on-ice role than he had ever before been given at the NHL role — over 19 minutes a game.

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He didn’t appear ready for it. At least until December rolled around.

After finally halting his goalless drought — which reached 16 games — in Las Vegas on Dec. 9, Laughton established himself as one of the Flyers’ most effective forwards. Over the next 20 games, Laughton scored nine goals and 10 assists, nearly scoring at a point-per-game pace. As the Flyers crawled their way back into the outskirts of playoff contention, Laughton was leading the way.

In February, however, Laughton began to slow down a bit. Tortorella theorized publicly that the 28-year-old might be wearing down — after all, this was easily the largest workload of Laughton’s NHL career, and given his gritty style, he wasn’t exactly taking care of himself physically in the process. Through Feb. 21, Laughton had averaged 19:03 minutes per game — his highest per game total as an NHL player by nearly three full minutes.

So the rest of the way, Tortorella and the coaches pulled back on Laughton’s usage. Sure, it was in part due to a desire to test young players like Owen Tippett, Morgan Frost, Noah Cates and Tyson Foerster in bigger roles. But it also was likely because the coaching staff believed Laughton might be getting a bit gassed. He averaged just 16:28 over the final 23 games of the season — still more than he had in any other year in the league, but a far cry from his massive role over the season’s first five months.

Laughton accepted it with no public complaints, however. And at the end of the 2022-23 campaign, he still had produced the best counting stats of his NHL career. Laughton had missed just four games due to injury, while averaging more minutes than ever before in his NHL career — and the result was career highs in both goals and points.

Was 2022-23 truly Laughton’s best season?

Laughton hit new plateaus in terms of his raw scoring totals. But was 2022-23 truly his best season?

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In some ways, sure. The point thresholds can’t be fully ignored, after all. For the first time, Laughton cracked the 40-point mark, finishing with 43 in total to rank fifth on the club in scoring. His 18 goals also were easily a career-high.

But most importantly, Laughton fully earned the trust of his coaches, more so than ever before.

Laughton was, for the first time in his NHL career, a true all-situations, top-of-the-lineup player. He finished with the second-most minutes on the team (per game) among Flyers forwards, ranked fourth in five-on-five TOI, earned his way onto the power play, and tied for fifth in the league with three shorthanded goals. Part of that was due to the Flyers’ lack of forward depth. But Laughton still needed to convince a demanding coaching staff that he was worthy of those minutes, via hard work in practices and games. Laughton did just that.

However, the boost in points? Yes, that was primarily driven by increased ice time, not improved scoring efficiency.

Prior to 2022-23, Laughton had received only the occasional power play audition; he had just 89 minutes of PP time over his previous seven full NHL campaigns. This past season? He skated for 129 minutes on the PP, more than double his previous career total.

In large part, that’s where the extra points came from. Laughton scored his usual 20-ish points at even strength (24), but this time, he was able to add eight more points via the PP. To Laughton’s credit, he proved to be productive with the man advantage, which wasn’t a guarantee — his 2.32 Goals/60 and 3.71 Points/60 in the situation ranked him second and sixth on the Flyers respectively. But Laughton has never lacked offensive ability — it’s very possible (if not probable) that he could have produced similar results on the PP in past seasons if given the opportunity. Even the increased short-handed production can be credited at least in part to Laughton finally getting to play in a penalty kill system that truly encouraged offensive aggressiveness, run by assistant coach Brad Shaw.

Laughton didn’t take a massive leap in 2022-23. He just stayed Scott Laughton — except he was on a team that had little choice but to use him like a borderline first-liner because it was filled with youngsters, and lacked veterans who were healthy or could avoid their head coach’s doghouse.

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Once Laughton convinced Tortorella of his value, 2022-23 was more a case of a player taking full advantage of the opportunities presented to him, rather than taking a big step forward in terms of true talent.

Laughton still being Laughton isn’t a bad thing

So why did Tortorella like Laughton so much?

It’s the same reason why saying that Laughton didn’t improve all that much in 2022-23 isn’t an insult. Laughton was already a darn good NHL forward, and remaining his usual self shouldn’t be viewed as a bad thing.

Let’s start with Laughton’s play-driving ability at even strength. It may not have gotten better in 2022-23 — but it’s just as good as it always has been, right in that borderline between second-line and third-line quality. Laughton always helps boost the results of his team and his linemates at evens, and that didn’t change. It was just Laughton being Laughton.

As far as underlying results go, that’s about as stable as it gets. Laughton consistently grades out positive — but not too positive. Just enough that he’s helping but not supercharging his lines. In other words, a natural middle-sixer.

The same has tended to be the case about his even strength scoring. Aside from two outlier campaigns, Laughton has consistently produced offense at the rate of a quality third-liner, and while his efficiency rates dipped a bit in 2022-23, they didn’t drop by much — and it was back up to 1.63 Points/60 from January through the end of the season, right in his usual wheelhouse.

Add in his usefulness on special teams — particularly now that he’s flashed the ability to be a quality PP2 option — and Laughton’s ideal fit in an NHL lineup is clear. He’s a solid middle-sixer, who drives play a bit better than he scores but is capable of doing both at a level to justify his spot in the middle of a lineup.

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What happened last season is the result of a player of his caliber being asked to take on top-of-the-lineup minutes: he remains the same in terms of true talent, just with more opportunities to make his counting stats look shiny.

Laughton may not be a first-liner on a contending NHL team. But he showed nothing in 2022-23 to disabuse one of the notion that he could certainly find a spot on one of them — and not as the 11th or 12th forward, either.

So … does he fit the rebuild?

And now, we come to the as-of-yet unmentioned question underpinning all of this analysis: Does Laughton make sense to keep around on a rebuilding Flyers club?

If the goal is to only keep around players who are young enough to realistically be a part of the next great Flyers team, then Laughton absolutely does not fit.

For starters, he just turned 29 in late May. Laughton is still basically delivering “peak Laughton” results now, but as he moves into his 30s, the risk of a dropoff increases significantly. In addition, Laughton will be up for a new contract at 32, and while it’s unlikely he’ll be in line for a big raise, it’s also easy to envision a scenario where he’s being pushed out of his spot in the lineup by young players at that point, and wouldn’t even make sense to re-sign.

Per this line of thinking, if Laughton has real value around the NHL right now — and by all accounts, it appears that he does — then the Flyers should sell him now, and pick up future assets that could potentially be part of a post-rebuild Philadelphia team.

But as the offseason enters its quiet period, Laughton is still a Flyer. Why have they apparently chosen to keep him — at least for now?

As noted back in May, it really comes down to culture.

Laughton is the closest thing the Flyers have right now to a captain. He’s the only player with an “A” on his jersey. His relentless playing style sets a strong example for young players and veterans alike. He’s long been a welcoming presence to new Flyers (young and old) off the ice. And Laughton very much wants to be in Philadelphia and be part of the idea of “the Flyers,” signing what was probably a below-market deal back in 2021 on trade deadline day to ensure that he wouldn’t be shipped out as a rental.

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In other words, Laughton may not be a likely part of the next great Flyers team. But the front office suspects that he can help to shape that team, via his intangible impact on the players who will be part of it.

From a pure asset management standpoint, Laughton probably should be moved. His value around the league isn’t likely to go any higher than it is right now, given his increasing age and the fact that as the Flyers’ rebuild progresses, Laughton’s days of getting top-line minutes will come to an end, as will the inflation of his point totals. If the Flyers truly were getting offers around the draft headlined by a late first-round pick — as was rumored — it’s reasonable for outsiders to wonder if the Flyers might be valuing his intangibles just a bit too highly given their current situation.

But the Flyers never entered this offseason with the goal of trading Laughton. They’ve always viewed him as an integral short-term piece of the planned rebuild and were only going to send him elsewhere if they were bowled over by a trade package. Apparently, that hasn’t happened yet.

Laughton would absolutely be a great fit right now on a Stanley Cup contender. He’s the type of gritty, actually useful depth forward that good teams can convince themselves is their “missing piece” that will push them across the finish line. But the Flyers believe Laughton is a strong fit for their rebuild, too. And they’re not exactly wrong. Laughton is good enough to provide solid on- and off-ice veteran support to the youth they’re looking to develop, but not quite enough support to push them out of prime drafting position. On a great team, he’s a versatile third- or fourth-liner, a heart-and-soul type expected to shine in the playoffs. On a bad team, he’s a top-of-the-lineup player working to build a culture and holding down the big minutes until the high-skill kids are ready to take the reins.

Will that organizational view of Laughton’s usefulness to the Flyers hold throughout the rest of the summer and into 2023-24? Stay tuned.

(Photo: Dennis Schneidler / USA Today)

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