With the Vincent Lecavalier trade earlier this week, the Philadelphia Flyers finally have roster flexibility. They are still limited by total cap space, but they have room to maneuver and massage the lineup for the first time since Shayne Gostisbehere claimed his spot in the lineup.
The Flyers are not in a position to make dramatic changes to the lineup, but they can work to improve their depth. Sam Gagner was recently demoted to the AHL, a situation with which GM Ron Hextall has indicated that he is not very happy.
Gagner has NHL level scoring talent, but he didn't cement a role in Dave Hakstol's lineup and became a cap casualty. I wrote last week that the demotion came before he was ever given a bona fide chance with the Flyers. With this new cap space, the Flyers' cap can absorb a Gagner recall.
Additionally, Jordan Weal is now a part of the roster. Weal has proven himself at the AHL level, producing at a point-per-game level the last two seasons, along with winning AHL playoff MVP last season. He's had limited chances on the Los Angeles Kings NHL roster, going pointless in the 10 NHL games he played this season.
Weal cannot go back to the AHL without complications. He is no longer waiver exempt, so he'd have to clear waivers. Perhaps the biggest reason the Kings traded Weal was that they couldn't fit him on their NHL roster, but they calculated the 23-year old would not pass through waivers. Better to trade him than lose him for nothing.
There would be no point for the Flyers to trade for Weal then expose him to waivers. He will get a chance in the NHL with the Flyers. This is where Scott Laughton enters the picture. Unlike Weal, the 21-year old Laughton is waiver-exempt, so the Flyers can send him down without any worries. This makes Laughton the top candidate for demotion without even looking at his performance.
Turning to the numbers, Laughton is not contributing a whole lot to the Flyers at the moment. In terms of goal production, Laughton is a very low scoring NHL player at this point in his career.
Last season, Laughton scored two goals and added four assists in 31 games. This year he has shown modest improvement, scoring four goals and seven assists in 39 games. While Weal's NHL ability is an open question, it bears consideration that Gagner's career low is 37 points in 67 games.
There is also some basis to compare Laughton's with Gagner's performance as a Flyer this season. Here is a chart of Corsi shot/possession between Laughton, Gagner and Weal.
It should be noted that Laughton and Gagner have been used similarly in the Flyers' bottom-six. In fact, they have been linemates for several games. The chart above shows that, with similar usage, the Flyers see a moderate improvement in offensive shots generated with Gagner on the ice compared to Gagner with very similar defensive performance.
Putting Corsi performance into a percentage, both Gagner and Laughton are under 50 percent, although Gagner is a little higher. Relative to the rest of the roster, Gagner is eighth among Flyers forwards in Corsi percentage, while Laughton is dead last among the forwards at 13th. Weal is on the positive side of Corsi percentage, but his numbers shown above aren't definitive because they only cover 10 games played for another team.
The bottom line here is that the Philadelphia Flyers are 29th in the NHL in goal scoring. In Gagner, they have a player with talent that made him a Top-10 draft pick, who has demonstrably created more offense than Laughton this season. In Weal, they have a young AHL standout anxious for a chance in the NHL. It's time to start pushing the issue offensively.
Laughton can also be demoted without risk. It may seem like he's been on the cusp of the NHL roster for a few seasons, but he's still only 21 years old. GM Ron Hextall is on record saying there's no such thing as over-developing a player, and playing top-six minutes in the AHL is generally preferable to playing on the fourth line in the NHL for a player his age anyway.
None of the three players discussed above is going to score in bunches buried on the Flyers fourth line, but chipping in the odd goal adds up and can be the difference between a win and loss on certain nights. Gagner and Weal's offensive ability may create mismatches against other teams' fourth lines, or they can occasionally fill-in on the top-six. Sending Laughton down and getting more offensive spark in the Flyers lineup right now just makes too much sense to ignore.
Marc Naples is a contributor to Flyerdelphia and Sports Talk Philly. Follow him on Twitter@SuperScrub47.
