As is the case each and every year, the Toronto Maple Leafs are in the thick of Stanley Cup contention and are using the NHL trade deadline to try and give themselves the best chance to finally win it all.
With that in mind, the Maple Leafs made a major splash, completing a blockbuster trade with the Philadelphia Flyers just a couple of hours before the deadline. They have acquired Scott Laughton, according to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, adding one of the premier UFAs available on deadline day.
#Flyers have traded C Scott Laughton to #LeafsForever.
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) March 7, 2025
Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman came through with the full trade details, and it's a doozy.
Flyers keep 50 per cent of Laughton, TOR gets a 4th and a 6th https://t.co/uJb3meiaYC
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) March 7, 2025
In all, the Maple Leafs acquired Laughton at 50 percent retained along with two draft picks in exchange for prospect Nikita Grebenkin and a first-round pick.
NHL trade grades: Who won the Maple Leafs-Flyers blockbuster trade for Scott Laughton?
The Maple Leafs have two great centers in Auston Matthews and John Tavares on their top two lines, but their bottom six needed another man in the middle. That's where Laughton, a longtime center, comes in.
He won't light up the stat sheet, as evidenced by his 11 goals and 27 points this season, but is a solid defender and is decent in the face-off dot. He's a solid addition Toronto's bottom six, and with the Flyers retaining half of his contract, the Leafs are only on the hook for a $1.5 million cap hit this season and next, which is really good value.
Laughton had spent all 12 of his NHL seasons with the Flyers since the team selected him in the first round of the 2012 NHL Draft. For them to part with him the return would have had to be worthwhile, and this deal fits that bill.
The Flyers were able to land a 2027 first-round pick and an intriguing forward in exchange for the 32-year-old Laughton. The first-round pick is top-10 protected, but the Leafs are unlikely to be a bottom-10 team in 2027, making it likely that the pick will transfer over to Philadelphia. Grebenkin is far from a high-end prospect, but could be a solid addition to Philadelphia's bottom six.
At the end of the day, the Flyers did what they should've done - they sold pretty high on a 32-year-old who won't be with the team when they're able to compete a couple of years down the line.
The Maple Leafs got better with this deal, but it's hard to love the deal, knowing that the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning have both made massive deals within their own division. Hopefully, the Maple Leafs have another move up their sleeves to stick with their division rivals.