What does a successful 2025-26 season look like for Scott Laughton?

It seems obvious that both Scott Laughton and Brad Treliving are looking forward to hitting a reset on Laughton’s time as a Toronto Maple Leaf. After dealing a first round pick and an interesting prospect (Nikita Grebenkin) for a half priced Laughton under the assumption that Laughton was the solution to the Leafs’ third line centre woes, Laughton instead slid down to the fourth line for much of his time as a Maple Leaf and put up just four points in 20 regular season games, followed by two points in 13 playoff games. This is Laughton producing at about half his career offensive output rate.

Laughton was brought in to accomplish two things, the first being that he could move the bottom six towards a more physical style of play and replace centres like David Kampf or Pontus Holmberg as the forechecking alternative to the shot suppression approach that dominated the Sheldon Keefe years. Whether that is the right approach or not can be debated but as far as delivering on the physical play asked of a Leafs’ bottom six forward, Laughton met that goal.

The second goal was the provide some offence and allow the Leafs to finally say goodbye to using Max Domi as a centre except when injuries call for him to step in. And while Domi didn’t see much time at centre after Laughton arrived, Laughton was in no way an offensive catalyst and that should have been somewhat expected based on the fact that Laughton’s goals come primarily within a few feet of the goal line and creating plays hasn’t been a strong suit for Laughton either having a career best for assists in 2023-24 with 26.

The Goal: Laughton is a 40-point third line centre

This goal is a relatively simple one because all that it is asking is that Laughton deliver on what his two previous seasons what his past three seasons with the Flyers looked like and if he can hover around the 40-point mark the Leafs will have some strong secondary scoring to help offset the departure of Marner.

The goal is both more and less attainable because of the presence of Nicolas Roy.

Roy should very much be the Leafs third line centre and some optimists out there might even make a case for Roy being able to push for second line responsibilities if Tavares moving to the wing becomes a reality.

From a pure depth chart perspective, Laughton is the Leafs’ fourth line centre but there is a very real possibility that fourth line will look very much like a third line and with the exception of Knies, Matthews, and Nylander, there is a very good chance that most Leafs forwards will see balanced icetime in 5v5 situations anyway. Laughton might not be on the third line as written but expecting him to land in the top nine of Leafs forwards for average time on ice at 5v5 is realistic.

From the offence perspective, Laughton could find himself playing on both sides of special teams as well. With ten career shorthanded goals and the Leafs preferring to play aggressively on the penalty kill, there is a good opportunity for Laughton there, but more notably Laughton has the potential to fill the Matthew Knies type of forechecking/net presence role of the top powerplay unit on the secondary unit.

While the Leafs top unit has and will continue to be Toronto’s bread and butter on the powerplay, Laughton adds to a growing number of secondary options and might be the natural choice for the line’s centre spot.

The Expectation: Kill penalties and hit everything that moves

Laughton didn’t decide what the Leafs would give up for him and shouldn’t carry the burden of a mortgaged future for another failed playoff run. Laughton has been remarkably consistent as a 30-40 point bottom sixer (who can guest star in the top six on the wing) that is defensively reliable throughout his career and there is a good chance he’ll continue to play that way.

If Laughton helps keep the Leafs penalty kill on track, adds to the Leafs ability to roll four responsible lines, and makes Toronto a little more physically imposing in the process he’ll have done his job.

Laughton will be the Leafs’ most physical option up the middle this season and that skill set may establish endear him to his coach and GM.