Scott Laughton has been traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Several years of deadline and summer trade rumors have reached reality now.
The Flyers are getting 21-year old forward prospect Nikita Grebenkin and a first-round draft pick in return, per Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, who broke the trade, and Toronto will also be getting a fourth- and sixth-round pick along with 50 percent retention on Laughton's $3 million cap hit for the remainder of this season and next.
Flyers keep 50 per cent of Laughton, TOR gets a 4th and a 6th https://t.co/uJb3meiaYC
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) March 7, 2025
Meanwhile, the Flyers' rebuild, which has prioritized re-establishing a good culture over the past couple of years with Laughton as one of the locker room's key figureheads, will push forward into the next phase.
"I think we've defined it," head coach John Tortorella said late last month in Voorhees. "I think we've been very transparent about that, and it sucks, but [general manager Danny Brière] – and I don't want to speak for Danny, but I know he's listening – he has to, because we have to get better."
"Scotty's loved here," Tortorella said at another point. "But you can't fall in love."
Not when they have a team with all eyes on tomorrow.
Laughton, 30, was the 20th overall pick to the Flyers in the 2012 NHL Draft, and by the mid-late 2010s, he had settled in as a regular two-way center within Philadelphia's bottom six.
In the 2020s — as the old Claude Giroux-led core was fading, then as the franchise fell into hockey purgatory, and when it started looking toward Brière, Tortorella, and president of hockey ops Keith Jones to dig out of it a couple of years ago —Laughton stepped up as the leading veteran in the locker room, and at first, the only skater Tortorella trusted to wear a captaincy letter.
Brière, Jones, and Tortorella needed time to lay out the Flyers' future, and Laughton's role in that process was to keep everything steady on the ice and in the room while helping to bring the new wave of younger players along as NHL pros.
But eventually, those younger players – like Tyson Foerster, Owen Tippett, Bobby Brink, and Matvei Michkov – would be able (and expected) to carry the torch, and the more they got established as regular NHLers, the more comfortable the Flyers' front office got in moving longtime and beloved regulars out in order to try and pushed further ahead.
It started with Joel Farabee and Morgan Forst last month when they both got traded to Calgary.
Now, after several years of consistently popping up in trade rumors to the point where he openly said he had gotten used to it, and to where he said this time around felt "a little bit more real," it was finally Laughton's turn.
"Danny and Jonesy gotta do what's best for the group and the future," Laughton said after practice last Wednesday as his name was once again spinning on the rumor mill. "But I'm trying to help this team win and make a little push here. There's a week left, see what happens."
He's going to Toronto to help with their playoff push now, while the Flyers try to close out the year with whatever they can swing.
MORE: Flyers' Laughton 'probably the best teammate you can ask for'
Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick
Follow Nick on Bluesky: @itssnick
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports