Confirmed with Link: Scott Laughton (50% Retention), 2025 4th, 2027 6th to the Leafs for Nikita Grebenkin, conditional 2027 1st

[Stephen]

Scott Laughton is not a fit and will be a total write off. He has the impact of a Connor Dewar with some shades of a David Clarkson homecoming. Let's get through the playoff run and hit the eject button on this one.

 

[Stephen]

Toronto receives
Laughton @ 50% until 2026
4th round pick in 2025
6th round pick in 2027

Philadelphia receives
Nikita Grebenkin
Conditional 1st round pick in 2027

This what it costs. But if you start telling everyone that "Grebenkin is our blue chip prospect", then I suppose in your mind TOR paid too much for Laughton, 4th, & 6th.

Pittsburgh paid a 5th round pick for Dewar and Timmins and Dewar is outproducing Laughton more than double since the deadline. The whole pro Scott Laughton schtick is fun and all, but this situation is a trainwreck.

 

[Duffman955]

No one’s complaining about the AAV. They’re upset about the acquisition cost, justifiably so. No one should be happy about giving up a 1st+ for a marginal upgrade.

Who is he an upgrade on?

He's been by far the worst player on the team

 

[Leafidelity]

Toronto receives
Laughton @ 50% until 2026
4th round pick in 2025
6th round pick in 2027

Philadelphia receives
Nikita Grebenkin
Conditional 1st round pick in 2027

This what it costs. But if you start telling everyone that "Grebenkin is our blue chip prospect", then I suppose in your mind TOR paid too much for Laughton, 4th, & 6th.

Is Laughton really much of an upgrade over Grebenkin? Maybe defensively, and even then Laughton is only adequate.

 

[LeafSteel]

The Laughton trade reeks of the Leafs being interested in him for years, and just blindly pursuing the name vs what he actually is now.

I’m sure we’d be happy with the Laughton version 4 years ago when his name first popped up, but this version blows.

I’m not even sure this is a Treliving trade as it is so much a Shanahan pursuit that he just had to have.

Not letting Treliving off the hook, and his blind chase of Brayden Schenn was just as bad, but the Leafs and Laughton were connected long before Treliving was ever here.

Maybe he wanted him, and maybe was given marching orders.

Either way, the trade sucks and I don’t see a good outcome for it. He never filled any of our boxes to begin with, forget that he’s been a bad fit and a dud.

Hoping to get a pick for him in the offseason, but this whole management group all deserve 50 lashes with a wet noodle.

Everyone here could see it, but they couldn’t?

Philly will absolutely be laughing at us for years about this one….

 

[Roo]

He’ll get better. It sometimes takes a while to settle in and find your role on a new team. I think he’ll start to find it in the playoffs.

 

[Ianturnedbull]

Paying any amount for a 13th forward at any cap hit is at best a waste of paperwork.

Based on what? 1/3 of Laughton's detractors here are CGY sympathizers, 1/3 are in the hindsight club, and the other 1/3 are in the "They should have listened to me and respected my wish list. For I would make a ggrrreat NHL GM!"

Would any one here admit that they only hate this trade because Laughton hasn't been a point per game forward?

 

[Ianturnedbull]

Pittsburgh paid a 5th round pick for Dewar and Timmins and Dewar is outproducing Laughton more than double since the deadline. The whole pro Scott Laughton schtick is fun and all, but this situation is a trainwreck.

It's not a schtick. It's exhausting defending him from hate-filled leaf fans. I will only agree to this trade being bad when some significant time has passed. I'll be the first to admit that he's now a lost cause if he doesn't improve.

 

[PanniniClaus]

Based on what? 1/3 of Laughton's detractors here are CGY sympathizers, 1/3 are in the hindsight club, and the other 1/3 are in the "They should have listened to me and respected my wish list. For I would make a ggrrreat NHL GM!"

Would any one here admit that they only hate this trade because Laughton hasn't been a point per game forward?

I can appreciate and admire the fact you keep showing up and doing this but what evidence do you have to support the notion this is going well?

 

[Ianturnedbull]

I can appreciate and admire the fact you keep showing up and doing this but what evidence do you have to support the notion this is going well?

I have nothing. Only the knowledge that the future is uncertain. The only other thing is that he had an entire career before he came to TOR. Perhaps he'll be the same. I'm staying positive here and saying that he can only get better. I will be happy to admit that I was wrong once we see how he can maneuver over time. If there's no change then fine.

 

[GQS]

Based on what? 1/3 of Laughton's detractors here are CGY sympathizers, 1/3 are in the hindsight club, and the other 1/3 are in the "They should have listened to me and respected my wish list. For I would make a ggrrreat NHL GM!"

Would any one here admit that they only hate this trade because Laughton hasn't been a point per game forward?

I definitely didn't like the idea of trading for Laughton A VERY LONG TIME AGO when the media, some fans or anyone else suggested that the Leafs trade for him to be our 3rd line center. Check my post history. Never understood why some people thought Laughton would be a significant upgrade to our lineup when he was never that great to begin with and has been a decent at best player for most of his career.

Also people are saying this trade is really bad because of the price we paid for him. If the Leafs had traded a 3rd pick or even just a 2nd pick for Laughton, I think even if there would still be criticism of the trade it would be massively less because of the relative small amount of assets we gave up for him. However we gave up a 1st and a decent prospect for him which should land you at least a decently impactful player even if they may not be a star player.

Hopefully Laughton will get better and make an impact in the playoffs because that's why we traded for him, but right now its not looking good. As I said before if the Leafs were going to trade with Philly it should've been for Kuzmenko who only cost a 3rd pick and right now has 5 goals and 11pts in 16 games with the Kings. It sucks that the Kings gave up far less and are getting a more impactful player and he would actually fill an important Leafs need for the playoffs which is more scoring.

Even if we traded for Kuzmenko and he didn't do much for us in the playoffs, giving up a 3rd pick isn't that big a deal. If Laughton doesn't do much in the playoffs then this trade is a disaster for the price we paid for him and if Brad decided to trade him to recoup some assets, there's 0% chance that any other GM would insane enough to pay anywhere near the price that we did to get him.

 

[The Shadow]

Toronto receives
Laughton @ 50% until 2026
4th round pick in 2025
6th round pick in 2027

Philadelphia receives
Nikita Grebenkin
Conditional 1st round pick in 2027

This what it costs. But if you start telling everyone that "Grebenkin is our blue chip prospect", then I suppose in your mind TOR paid too much for Laughton, 4th, & 6th.

You don’t give up a 1st round pick for a player that shouldn’t even be in your top 4 lines at this point.

 

[Ianturnedbull]

You don’t give up a 1st round pick for a player that shouldn’t even be in your top 4 lines at this point.

Which page in the GM Handbook does it say that?

 

[Niagara Bill]

He’ll get better. It sometimes takes a while to settle in and find your role on a new team. I think he’ll start to find it in the playoffs.

Don't find your place, get your butt out there and lead on the ice

 

[Menzinger]

As someone who liked the trade at first, also I think it's first to take a 'skeptical until proven otherwise and admittedly he's looked rough most games.

I also don't think anyone can seriously start to evaluate it until after the playoffs. That where is value will be seen for better or worse.

 

[darrylsittler27]

Hoping a player in steep decline can have one last blow. So Leafy. He was washed up before he got here. Courtnall for Kordic. Leafs scored with Carlo. They blew it hard with Laughton. At least we didn't help Boston i.e Rask. The pain..

 

[Maple Leaf]

No one’s complaining about the AAV. They’re upset about the acquisition cost, justifiably so. No one should be happy about giving up a 1st+ for a marginal upgrade.

There is no upgrade
They traded a first for zero upgrade

 

[AuraSphere]

I said it before he even played his first game as a Leaf. Was always over-rated and overvalued on a bad fllyers team.

Grebenkin will be better than Laughton let alone the 1st. Unfortunate decision making by our scouts, they were just desperate for a 3C i guess. If only B.Schenn was available, but STL going on a freak run now

 

[JT AM da real deal]

Every game I've watched he has been our worst forward .. if he plays game 1 it is on reputation only .. can't see him staying in lineup especially if we lose game 1 .. really disappointed in our pro scouting staff and even more at Tre/Shanny for giving up our 1st rounder for a guy at end of his rope .. he can't even keep up on LW on 3rd line for f**** sakes

 

[CincoHolio]

I wanted to like this deal but after each passing game it's pretty clear this guy doesn't provide much at all on the ice. Certainly not worth what was given up to get him. It's a big fat L at this point in time. Not as bad as the Jeannot trade, but not far off.

 

[4thline]

I'm not going to climb up on a hill to defend this one, but I do remember once upon a time needing to hold the line pointing out the downright exceptional value we got in the McCabe trade. He had a decidedly mediocre transition period that had the sharks circling- but we were paying for a combination of term, reduced cap hit, and stylistic/cultural influence that had the potential to far outweigh the initial disappointment. That potential came true.

Laughton's transition has been worse, and he has less term benefit, and less upside. He's likely playing the worst hockey of his career right now. Lot's of reason for angst. But the guy was on pace for almost 40 points playing on a dogshit Flyers team. Is he hurt? Is he just not a fit in our current line construction? Our playstyle? Is he just having a rough transition? Who knows, but it looks bad right now.

But.... unless we're in a Hakanpaa 2.0 situation and he's essentially done, there's a lot of time for this trade to become worth it. A player like the Laughton of the 2.5 years before March 2025 is going to get 4 million+ this July. If he can be that guy for us for 1.5....

 

[Fogelhund]

He’ll get better. It sometimes takes a while to settle in and find your role on a new team. I think he’ll start to find it in the playoffs.

I mean.. he really can't get much worse... so,

 

[Fogelhund]

It's interesting looking at Laughton's linemates production since he left.

He played mostly with Poehling and Hathaway.

Since Laughton was traded, Poehling has 12 points. Hathaway has been injured..

Hopefully he shows something in the playoffs... this hasn't been a good trade at all.

Personally, I wanted Krebs.. who has 9 points since the trade deadline.

We've stopped playing Laughton as C, which is a start... he was no longer a C, and I can't believe we didn't watch him enough to not know this.. bad sign... he's just not a great player anymore, and that was pretty well known by everyone except Treliving apparently.

 

[Duffman955]

The pro-scouts who watched him play need to be fired immediately

 

[definedMF]

Scott Laughton on the leafs is as simple as this:

1. Should never trade a 1st and decent prospect for a middle six AT best player
2. He has definitely not looked comfortable, and is clearly overthinking it. Has had maybe a half dozen good periods so far, which is just not good enough
3. We needed a PROPER centre or a PROPER winger, we got a hybrid and he is not good at either of those.

Dewar was clearly neutered in his role here and was also snake bitten for a bit. Its the tale as old as time, coach tells player you are "this kinda player" and that means suppressing other instincts, Laughton is doing that and so was Dewar.