The NHL trade deadline is next week and Elliotte Friedman made a brief hint that the Washington Capitals could be interested in Flyers forward Scott Laughton.
The NHL trade deadline is next week. Yeah, it’s coming up fast in this post-4 Nations world. And on every major podcast from every major insider, there is bound to be little nuggets dropped until the big day or until a transaction actually happens.
On Monday’s episode of “32 Thoughts”, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman connected some dots between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Washington Capitals. When talking about what the first-place Capitals could do in the next handful of days, considering that no one really expected them to be as good as they are and the buckets of cap space they have thanks to both Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie being on LTIR, a Flyers player who is currently in a whole bunch of trade rumors came up.
“Yeah, like a third liner — a Scott Laughton type. I could see that but I would be very, very careful messing with what they have,” Friedman said.
And this is not the only Laughton-to-Capitals linkage we have seen recently. Back on Feb. 14, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, in an article playing deadline matchmaker and coming up with specific trades that could be made, conjured up a trade that would be sending Laughton to Washington for its 2026 first-round pick.
While two of the most knowledgeable insiders hypothesizing about the same move could be a coincidence, it does feel like something that could certainly happen. The Capitals are not going to make a crazy push and get the best player on the market in their position. This season has been a major surprise and with some top prospects like Ryan Leonard most likely getting added to their roster, the Capitals aren’t in need to make the big splash. A depth addition like Laughton, to reward the current team with some investment into this season’s success, who is also under contract for one more season, would fit the mold.
Now, would the price be for just that 2026 first-rounder? Possibly. It would check the box of the type of draft pick the Flyers want, but also wouldn’t be such a burden to a team trying to win another Stanley Cup with one of the greatest players to ever live. Washington does have a pile of prospects that are interesting in a step below the top guys — Ilya Protas is dominating the OHL as a 6-foot-5 winger, Andrew Cristall is one of the most electric junior players in the world but is on the smaller side, and Ryan Chesley is a decent college defenseman — but we can’t see the Flyers going all-out to target one of those players as the main part of the return in a trade that would send the heartbeat of their team within the division.
Maybe one actual player that could be involved in this hypothetical deal is 23-year-old center Hendrix Lapierre. The former first-round pick has not really been able to find his footing in the NHL but has consistently been scoring in the AHL. He doesn’t have a super high ceiling or anything, but he could be one of those players that just needs a better opportunity and with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Dylan Strome, he isn’t going to get the chance to do much in Washington. Just a thought.
We are still several days away from the deadline, but could we see the Flyers send Laughton in a trade within the Metropolitan Division and to a team with fairly high aspirations? We’ll see. The Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Jets are reportedly still hovering around, so there is significant interest in the Flyers veteran.
