{"id":547548,"date":"2026-04-08T15:05:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/547548\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T15:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:05:12","slug":"kings-scott-laughton-loving-life-in-l-a-following-trade-from-maple-leafs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/547548\/","title":{"rendered":"Kings\u2019 Scott Laughton loving life in L.A. following trade from Maple Leafs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scott Laughton<\/a> is enjoying his time with the Los Angeles Kings<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The 31-year-old veteran centre has scored five goals and two assists over 16 games since being acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> ahead of the trade deadline in early March. <\/p>\n

The Kings,\u00a0who defeated the Maple Leafs in a 7-6 overtime thriller on Saturday, currently own a 32-26-19 record with 83 points, just one point behind the Nashville Predators for the second and final\u00a0wild-card\u00a0spot in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n

With five games remaining on their\u00a0regular-season\u00a0schedule, the Kings have one game in hand over the Preds.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents were down for the last week, so that was nice to kind of show them around. It\u2019s definitely a big change,\u201d Laughton\u00a0said Wednesday morning during an appearance on TSN 1050\u2019s First Up.<\/a> \u201cI haven\u2019t played on the West Coast. It\u2019s a five-and-a-half-hour flight from home, so it\u2019s been a little different, but it\u2019s been amazing, honestly. Just the opportunity I\u2019ve been given here.\u201d <\/p>\n

Kings interim head coach D.J. Smith, who took over for Jim Hiller<\/a> on March 1, also coached Laughton during his three seasons with the Ontario Hockey League\u2019s Oshawa Generals from 2010 to 2013. The familiarity with his junior hockey bench boss has helped with the sudden transition said Laughton. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, [I] know the coach from Junior and he\u2019s given me a pretty good leash and a pretty good runway here. The hockey aspect has been a ton of fun for me, then to get out of the rink and to be able to walk with your kid to a patio and go to the beach with them. It\u2019s been a lot of fun, so it\u2019s definitely different, but the way the organization treats you here has been very special.<\/p>\n

Laughton, a native of Oakville, Ont., says it was a \u201cdream come true\u201d to play for the Leafs despite the results on the ice, especially this season, not meeting expectations. <\/p>\n

Laughton admits it was \u201cunsettling\u201d not knowing his hockey future in the weeks leading up to the deadline. <\/p>\n

\u201cI still had a blast getting to know all those guys and the staff there is fantastic,\u201d said Laughton. \u201cIt was definitely a whirlwind near the end of it, and just not knowing where you\u2019re going to go or if you\u2019re going to go, so it\u2019s a little bit unsettling for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laughton didn\u2019t record a point in his first game against his former team over the weekend and even got in a scuffle following with Michael Knies following a goal which led to a stint in the penalty box. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe [Knies] didn\u2019t even say anything bad, but that was the second power-play goal they scored,\u201d said Laughton \u201cI was on for both, so I was a little upset and gave him a light cross-check. I thought it was a weaker call, but definitely not the smartest on my part.\u201d<\/p>\n

NHL: Maple Leafs 6, Kings 7 (OT) Quinton Byfield scored 2:33 into overtime, Adrian Kempe had two goals and two assists, and the Kings beat the Maple Leafs on Saturday night. With the win, Los Angeles moved into a tie with Nashville for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. <\/p>\n

Things have not gotten any easier in Toronto since Laughton\u2019s departure as general manager Brad Treliving was fired last month after less than three seasons\u00a0with\u00a0the club.<\/p>\n

In an ensuing press conference, president and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Keith Pelley said the organization needed to fix their culture and be more aligned as a group. <\/p>\n

Laughton said he has a \u201cton of respect\u201d for the players and staff on the Maple Leafs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of respect for him [Treliving] and the way he treated me in my time while I was there, just in the little conversations we had. But obviously when something big like that happens, it\u2019s a change for the group.,\u201d explained Laughton. \u201cEven what happened to [Auston] Matthews with [Radko] Gudas, I think the way they\u2019re playing now and the way they played against us, like a little scrum everyone\u2019s in it, and obviously you don\u2019t want it to get to that point where Matthews is out for the year, but I know that group cares.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a ton of guys in that room that really care about the team and want them to do well. Sometimes it just doesn\u2019t go your way. I got a ton of respect for a lot of guys in that room, the way they handle themselves, the way they take care of themselves and care for the Maple Leafs. I got nothing but good things to say about a lot of those guys in there and the staff that puts in the long hours that nobody sees.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs acquired Laughton and two late-round draft picks from the Philadelphia Flyers<\/a> ahead of last year\u2019s trade deadline in exchange for a 2027 conditional first-round pick (top 10 protected) as well as winger Nikita Grebenkin<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Laughton struggled during his brief time in Toronto, scoring just two goals with two assists over 20 games to close the 2024-25 regular season, then adding two more assists across 13 playoff games last spring.<\/p>\n

Laughton produced eight goals and four assists over 43 games with the Leafs this season before being dealt to the Kings for a 2026 conditional third-round pick, a trade that was scrutinized by many hockey pundits as poor asset management. The pick will turn into a second-round selection if the Kings are able to qualify for the postseason. <\/p>\n

Laughton is in the final season of a five-year, $15 million contract and will be a free agent this summer. <\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t even really thought about it [free agency]. I think you think about it right when you get traded and all that, but once I\u2019ve settled in here, I think my focus is on trying to get in the playoffs here and see where that goes,\u201d Laughton explained. \u201cAnd then once the summer hits, you kind of navigate through everything. But no, the way they\u2019ve treated me here has been amazing and I\u2019m just having a lot of fun playing for [interim head coach] DJ [Smith] and playing with these guys and getting a good opportunity here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kings host the last-place Vancouver Canucks<\/a> on Thursday and the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> on Saturday before hitting the road for their final three games of the season against the Settle Kraken, Canucks and Calgary Flames<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scott Laughton is enjoying his time with the Los Angeles Kings. The 31-year-old veteran centre has scored five…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5126],"tags":[4759,5,186,1760,240,5303,793,145,32840,5304,5302,4,42235,32467],"class_list":{"0":"post-547548","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-kings","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-kings","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-la-kings","13":"tag-lakings","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-kings","16":"tag-los-angeles-kings-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-26","17":"tag-losangeles","18":"tag-losangeleskings","19":"tag-nhl","20":"tag-scott-laughton-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8476872","21":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-10"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116369711964238784","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}