Scott Laughton is an unusual spot when he comes into Flyers training camp this fall.
If Vinny Lecavalier is still on the roster, his chances of being there as a Flyer are slim and none.
In fact, right now, the organization has him penciled into playing his first season of pro as a Phantom and getting the experience he needs at a higher level.
What is very different, however, is that this will be the two full drafts past his own (2012) in which Laughton, as a first-round pick, didn't make the Flyers roster outright as an every day contributor.
The last Flyer first-round pick would went through that process and didn't make it was goalie Max Ouellet in 1999.
The Flyers have a great track record of spotting NHL-caliber players in the first round (not so good thereafter), and getting them onto the roster within three years or less once drafted, in some capacity.
This figures to be the second, straight year that Laughton will come into camp vying for a fourth line center position and not get it.
Then again, does it really benefit a young player playing single digit minutes at the NHL level when he can spend double that amount in his first year at the AHL level and toughen up?
Ron Hextall said again on Friday at development camp that he has no issues with sending Laughton to the AHL for a year, if need be, than waste his development here. Unless Laughton flat out beats out someone in camp, he is destined for the minors this season.
Question is, would he be better served at this point playing fewer minutes in the NHL?
“That's a tough call,” coach Craig Berube replied when I asked him that on Friday. “The thing with a player like that is you don't want to hurt his offense and he's an offensive player. He's a good two-way player, but there's been guys – Joe Thornton started on the fourth line in Boston and developed into a highly skilled offensive player.
“I think it just depends on the situation. I keep saying it, but it's what's best for the team at the time. If it's best that he makes the team and he's deserving of making the team, we'll make that decision.
“That's a tough question to answer, if we're hurting his development or not because there's players that have gone on to be players that started on the fourth line, played 10 minutes a night, killed penalties and checked.”
Similarly, as spectacular as Shayne Gostisbehere looked playing last winter in the Frozen Four at Wells Fargo Center, unless he makes an undeniable case for himself on defense, he won't be playing with the Flyers this season, either.
I've been pushing the idea that the Flyers need to take a chance on ONE of their young defensive studs and allow them to develop in the NHL this season regardless. I feel the FLyers need more youth, more speed and agility on the back end. That lack of such showed again in the playoffs last spring.
Yet my discussions with Berube, GM Ron Hextall and scout guru Chris Pryor have convinced me that nothing short of one of these kids (including Sam Morin and Robert Hagg ) imposing a tsunami of talent to wash out every one else, will allow that to happen.
The Flyers appear committed to gutting it out this season with what they have currently on defense and let their kids develop at their own pace.
That said, I found it interesting that all three prospects feel the same way as the organization - take it slow and not push things. None of them expressed the kind of "I want it now" brashness that Anthony DeAngelo, who was not drafted by the Flyers, expressed prior to this summer's draft. The Flyers bypassed DeAngelo and Tampa Bay chose him, instead.
In summation, as with Laughton, I don't see any of these top defensive prospects making the roster unless something totally unforeseen happens in camp.
The fact they themselves see a longer route, cautious ahead, makes it more likely that is what will indeed occur.
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Now here’s the rub: Scott Laughton is here and will return in training camp trying to make the Flyers roster in what will be two full seasons past being drafted (2012).
You have to go back to 1999 to find the last time a Flyers first round pick didn’t make the roster two full season past his draft. That would be goalie Max Ouellet.
What confronts Laughton here is the presence of one, Vinny Lecavalier, and the fact that for the second, straight fall the Flyers will go into camp projecting that the only possible spot for Laughton is as a fourth line center.
And that likely means single digit minutes which does very little to help Laughton develop. Before he would go back to junior. This time, he’d go to the Phantoms because his now 20 years old.
Flyers coach Craig Berube said Friday this is about to become a difficult decision for the organization.
“He'll be evaluated like everybody else at training camp,” Berube said. “If they're deserving of making the team, we'll discuss it as an organization and see what the best thing for the player is and the team.”
The organization sent him back to junior last season rather than crimp his development as a fourth line center.
This time? And noting Lecavalier is still around, it’s unsolvable.
“That's a tough call,” Berube said. “The thing with a player like that is you don't want to hurt his offense and he's an offensive player. He's a good two-way player, but there's been guys – Joe Thornton started on the fourth line in Boston and developed into a highly skilled offensive player.
“I think it just depends on the situation. I keep saying it, but it's what's best for the team at the time. If it's best that he makes the team and he's deserving of making the team, we'll make that decision.
“That's a tough question to answer, if we're hurting his development or not because there's players that have gone on to be players that started on the fourth line, played 10 minutes a night, killed penalties and checked.”
Chris Pryor, director of scouting, says Laughton wasn’t harmed with the extra work.
“It helped him and he went back with a great attitude,” Pryor said. “He had his head screwed on right. He was a big part of Oshawa … had a really good year for himself and his game developed.”
If Laughton goes back, it could ruin his mental approach moving forward.
“It will be a better situation playing in Allentown from a development situation,” Pryor said, if that is the route that Laughton follows. “It’s not going to hurt any of those guys to go down there and have a big role. They’re still young guys. It’s going to be a little bit different look there.”
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