The Philadelphia Flyers have parted ways with veteran center Scott Laughton, multiple sources confirmed Wednesday afternoon, following a series of heated verbal confrontations with head coach Rick Tocchet that reached a boiling point earlier this week.
Laughton, 31, who has spent his entire 11-year NHL career in Philadelphia after being drafted 20th overall in 2012, was informed Tuesday night that the organization would be moving on. The decision comes less than 48 hours after an explosive exchange during Monday’s practice at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees, New Jersey, where witnesses described Tocchet and Laughton needing to be separated by assistants and teammates.
According to team sources, tensions had been building for weeks. Tocchet, in his second year behind the Flyers’ bench, has demanded a faster, more accountable style of play from his middle-six forwards. Laughton, the team’s longest-tenured player and an alternate captain since 2021, reportedly pushed back publicly on several occasions over what he perceived as inconsistent lineup decisions and ice-time distribution. The final straw came when Tocchet benched Laughton for the third period of Saturday’s 4-2 loss to Carolina, a move that led to a closed-door shouting match that spilled into the hallway.
“Scott’s a proud guy who bleeds orange and black, but at some point the message has to be received,” one team source said. “John [Tortorella] never had these issues with him because Scott respected the hard line. Rick’s style is different, and it just wasn’t meshing anymore.”
Laughton was owed $3 million this season and next in the final two years of a five-year, $15 million contract signed in 2021. The Flyers are expected to buy out the remainder of the deal in the coming days, creating approximately $1.5 million in dead cap space through 2026-27. The move opens a roster spot and roughly $2 million in immediate cap relief that GM Daniel Briere can use before the March trade deadline.
Laughton leaves Philadelphia with 336 points (133 goals, 203 assists) in 689 games, ranking him among the franchise’s top-30 scorers all-time. He was a fixture on the penalty kill and a vocal leader in the room, but his production had dipped to 28 points in 82 games last season and just 9 points in the first 22 games of 2025-26.
Neither Tocchet nor Laughton commented when approached by media Wednesday. The Flyers host Pittsburgh Thursday night.
