Flyers sell and sign at trade deadline
The Flyers were sellers at the Monday trade deadline, although you can file the contract extension that they handed their most tradable commodity, veteran forward Scott Laughton, in the buyer category.
Judging by the verbiage of Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher, Laughton gave the organization a hometown discount in accepting a five-year, $15 million pact.
“I woke up this morning not knowing if we would trade Scott Laughton or sign him,” Fletcher said. “That was the big decision today. We’re very pleased that we were able to re-sign Scott. Scott Laughton wanted to be a Flyer.”
The Flyers dealt 32-year-old left winger Michael Raffl to the Washington Capitals for a fifthround pick. The deal was struck because Raffl’s contract is up after the season and the Flyers want to give more playing time to their younger forwards, including winger Tanner Laczynski. The Caps are a decent landing spot, as they’re tied for the East lead and poised to take a run at their second Stanley Cup.
“Just can’t thank him enough for his eight years of service to this organization,” Fletcher said of Raffl. “He’s a player that played very well for us for many years. Played hurt a lot this year. Almost refused to be taken out of the lineup. Hopefully, Michael gets a chance to have a big role on the Capitals.”
Additionally, the Flyers got a seventh-round choice from Montreal for defenseman Erik Gustafsson. The Flyers will pay half of Gustafsson’s remaining salary. He was under contract for $1.5 million this season.
“With respect to a player like Erik Gustafsson, clearly it didn’t work,” Fletcher said. “Erik wasn’t playing. I thought it was very important, not just from our perspective but from Erik’s perspective to give him a chance to play. By moving him to Montreal hopefully we give him that opportunity … and help his career along.”
Got it. Laughton’s $3 million annual salary is a modest increase over the $2.3 million checks he’s been cashing this season. Not bad for a player who never has registered more than 13 goals or 32 points in parts of eight NHL seasons, although he tallied five goals in the playoffs last year. The salary matches the money paid to forward Oskar Lindblom.
Laughton’s deal runs through 2025-26. The irony for Laughton, who turns 27 next month, is with such a reasonable salary and the ability to help in so many ways, he could be looking over his shoulder the next four or five trade deadlines.
That said, the deal provides Laughton with at least a structure of stability, as it guarantees he’ll remain with Philly through the upcoming NHL expansion draft. That’s more than you can say for the aging nucleus of a roster that collectively is 19-16-6, good for 44 points, and tied with the New York Rangers and four points behind the fourth and final playoff berth in the East.
Laughton has seven goals and 17 points in 38 games for a Flyers team that since the beginning of March, has won just eight of 24 games.
“At the end of the day he made a commitment to us today to sign and stay with us,” Fletcher said. “It’s hard to get those players. The thought of creating an additional hole to me, wasn’t very appealing. He’s part of the solution going forward. We were able to lock him up to a contract that works for us going forward and obviously works for Scott.”
Fletcher said the Flyers began working on an extension with Laughton before the season, then tabled the talks until last week. That’s when outside interest in Laughton began to peak.
“Certainly, there was a lot of interest in Scott Laughton,” Fletcher said. “But we value him highly and we were happy with the deal and very happy with Scott, the versatility he brings, the energy, he moves around your lineup. He contributes offense. He can kill penalties. What I found out the last few days kind of confirmed our own opinion of Scott - that he is a very valuable guy and we’re very happy to have him.”
Fletcher would have been more aggressive “in terms of buying” had the Flyers played better the past three weeks. For the most part, they’ve performed well one night and the next have been unable to get out of their own way. The Flyers gave away a couple of two-goal leads in a 5-3 loss Sunday to the woeful Buffalo Sabres. Dumbfounded by the meltdown, coach Alain Vigneault said the Flyers “blew it.”
Fletcher has been encouraged with the play of forward Laczynski, defenseman Sam Morin and others. Rookie Cam York is expected to get playing time as well, although he still hasn’t joined the Phantoms.
“We’re certainly in the fight right now and we’re going to continue to fight but we may need some assets here over the next few months to address some of the needs that we have going forward,” Fletcher said. “That may be a better use of some of our assets. This gives some of our other players an opportunity to play. There’s certainly some other players either on our Taxi Squad or Lehigh Valley that in my opinion deserve a chance to play and may be able to come up and provide us a spark.”