The Toronto Maple Leafs are in a precarious position ahead of Friday's NHL trade deadline and could be one of the main characters throughout this week. One of the players that have a high likelihood of being dealt from Toronto to a team who might actually make the playoffs and win a Stanley Cup, is center Scott Laughton.
While almost every single playoff team could use someone like Laughton on their fourth line, only one team can get the pending unrestricted free agent forward by Friday at 3:00 p.m. There has not been a whole lot of noise surrounding his name, other than whether or not the Leafs are planning on moving him as they figure out how much they want to sell off at the deadline, but we do at least have one team named by an actual NHL insider.
On Saturday night's broadcast of NHLonTNT, Elliotte Friedman was going through options and the logistics of a potential reunion for Nazem Kadri on the Colorado Avalanche. But, as Friedman pointed out, the main concern is Kadri's remaining years on his contract and how that could interfer with them re-signing Cale Makar.
What seems like a more logical solution, is the Avalanche targeting a rental forward and Friedman specifically named Laughton as an option.
Elliotte Friedman also talked to the boys about:
— NHLonTNT (@NHL_On_TNT) March 1, 2026
- The possibility of a Kadri/Avs reunion
- What Guerin and the Wild might do next
- Stamkos & O'Reilly's future in Nashville
- Malkin & Pens talking about an extension pic.twitter.com/21z5DoMXlD
"One of the centers that I heard could end up in Colorado, is Scott Laughton," Friedman said. "Who I think would be a tremendous fit, and he would be more of a rental."
Leafs close to trading Scott Laughton to Colorado Avalanche?
It's interesting that Friedman specified that Laughton would be a rental. While Colorado does not have dozens and dozens of millions of dollars in available cap space for the next few seasons, Laughton could theoretically be a very cheap option in their bottom six and he could want to re-sign there and experience a winning team for possibly the first time in his career.
Laughton would solve a whole lot of depth problems for the Avalanche right now and most likely, the Leafs would want just a decent draft pick and some minor-league prospect in return, as they try to re-coup some of the assets (a first-round pick and Nikita Grebenkin) they paid to get the veteran forward from the Philadelphia Flyers this time last year.