Ex-NHLer Jay Rosehill defends $15,000,000 Maple Leafs trade acquisition amid recent criticism

Scott Laughton has had a difficult start to his tenure with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Oakville, Ontario, native was acquired by the Maple Leafs at the deadline from Philadelphia in exchange for Nikita Grebenkin and draft compensation.

He was expected to fill the third-line center role and provide physicality, reliability, and once in a while chip in with some offense. Unfortunately, Laughton has struggled through his first eight games, having gone pointless, with a -5 rating while averaging just 12:32 minutes of ice time per game.

Fans have begun to criticize the move by Brad Treliving and are frustrated with Scott Laughton's play thus far. However, former NHLer Jay Rosehill implored Leafs nation not to panic about Laughton on the "Leafs Morning Take" show on Monday:

"It's not the start that Laughts (Laughton) has wanted at all. It's not the start that he's wanted, personally, that the teams wanted, the fans have wanted. It's just, it's just not a great start for a good player. We came in here with him wanting to fill that 3C role. Things changed.

"He's not even really in that role at the moment, so it's not a good start for him. But honestly, I truly believe, and I, I saw Laughts in Nashville and spoke with him and hung out with him briefly, and talked about like, you know, getting to Toronto and everything, and he's just overthinking it because he cares too much. He cares a lot."

Rosehill added:

"I don't know if you can't care too much, but you can care so much that maybe you're doing things a little bit differently and trying to force the issue, trying too hard, just overthinking it, trying to get to places that you normally wouldn't be in, instead of letting it happen and using your experience and your talent, which he has in spades, to go to the places that are going to make him effective and have good shifts and get produced, production from he's trying to force other things. ...

"And I still believe in this guy. And it's far too early to be making any negative assumptions about the asset, not the start he wanted, whatsoever. But there's room to grow."

The 30-year-old is in the fourth season of a five-year, $15,000,000 contract signed back in 2021. The Flyers retained 50% of his $3 million average annual salary, so the Maple Leafs are only taking a $1.5 million cap hit.

Maple Leafs made tweaks to their bottom six at practice

Following Saturday night's disappointing 5-2 loss in Nashville, the Maple Leafs have done some juggling to their third and fourth forward lines.

Most notably, trade deadline acquisition Scott Laughton has moved up to the third line as the left-winger alongside Max Domi and Nick Robertson, while David Kampf could come back out of the lineup in exchange for Calle Jarnkrok.

Maple Leafs reporter David Alter shared the practice lines on X (formerly Twitter).

Coach Craig Berube is hoping that an increased role could spark Scott Laughton to find the scoresheet for the first time as a Maple Leaf.

The Maple Leafs are back in action on Tuesday night to host the struggling Philadelphia Flyers at Scotiabank Arena. The puck drops at 7 p.m. EDT.