Captain Auston Matthews gives his honest opinion on Toronto Maple Leafs' trade deadline acquisitions Scott Laughton and Brandon Carlo

The Toronto Maple Leafs acquired Scott Laughton and Brandon Carlo before the NHL trade deadline. Both players are expected to play on Saturday against the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena.

On Friday, Leafs captain Auston Matthews talked to the media after the practice about the team's trade moves.

"Yeah, two good players, actually excited for them to run the team. And I think it'll definitely give us, like an extra boost of players," he said.

Matthew also spoke about the Atlantic Division with strong teams like Florida and Tampa Bay.

"Our division is extremely competitive, so there's (always) gonna be some moves, some stuff going on. But I'm happy with what we did today. We've got a lot of good pieces, a lot of good parts," he added.

Toronto needed help in defense after losing Chris Tanev to injury. Carlo, at six-foot-five and 218 pounds, brings size and experience. And he might pair with Morgan Rielly to strengthen the blue line.

"Awesome guy. Super Down to Earth. Yeah, he's a big man, hard to play against - happy to be on the side playing with him now," Matthews said about Carlo.

The Leafs’ third line has also struggled, with Max Domi playing center despite being better on the wing. Laughton, who hails from Oakville, is strong on penalty kill, and he will help stabilize the line.

Laughton has 265 points (106 goals, 159 assists) in 661 regular-season games and 10 points in 24 playoff games. Apart from that, he has trained with Matthews and other Leafs players in the summer, so he has a good bond with them.

"With Scott, I did like a camp in Florida many years back, and we actually played a Toronto together. So that's known throughout the camp, throughout our travels," Matthews said about Laughton.

"And yeah, I mean, he's a good player, hard to play against, plays with some edge. (Off the ice he's) pretty laid back, relaxed guys. So I think he should come in and blend in and fit in pretty easily."

These players are not short-term rentals and will be a part of the team beyond this season. Laughton has one year left on his contract, with Philadelphia retaining half his salary. And Carlo has two years remaining, with Boston keeping 15% of his cap hit.

Auston Matthews calls Leafs' loss a bad judgment of 'Vegas' after slow start

The Vegas Golden Knights started strong and scored five goals before the Toronto Maple Leafs responded. Tomas Hertl, Brett Howden, and Jack Eichel scored to make it 3-0 in the first period. Toronto then replaced Woll with Anthony Stolarz in goal. However, Vegas kept attacking in the second period with goals from Hanifin and Tanner Pearson.

"I just thought we were pretty flat at the start and, hey, that's a good team over there," Matthews said. "They're a standard of the league, and I don't know, I just don't think we came out ready to play. Maybe we were hoping for an easy game."

Toronto got on the scoreboard with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner's goals but lost the game 5-2.