Maybe the Toronto Maple Leafs should’ve played Scott Laughton more.
That’s not to say they shouldn’t have traded him to the Los Angeles Kings on Friday. By that point, the Leafs were well entrenched in needing to sell, and Laughton is on an expiring contract.
But in his first game with the Kings, Laughton proved immediately what he can do.
Laughton scored a goal and played 15 minutes and 8 seconds. He also had four hits and won 6-of-7 faceoffs.
That’s not quite the kind of line he normally had in Toronto, particularly in the fact that Laughton was on the ice late as the Kings were down a goal and trying to tie it up in an eventual loss to the Montreal Canadiens.
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The 15:08 for Laughton marks his 11th-most playing time this season, and that’s even after just arriving with the Kings and probably barely knowing the names of his teammates.
He had 33 games with the Maple Leafs when he played less than that.
The faceoff usage was at least logical, and Toronto made sure to have Laughton on the ice for a lot of faceoffs this season.
It’s just one game, and it’s clearly a small sample size, but there were already Leafs fans who wondered if Laughton should be on the ice more consistently rather than getting games where he played just 10 minutes or so.
At least in his debut in Hollywood, Laughton proved he can make that workload work. If he keeps doing that en route to the playoffs, it’ll be great for the Kings and painful for Toronto.
