Scott Laughton makes roster, focused on staying in NHL

VOORHEES As Scott Laughton sat in his locker and untied his skates, he didn’t need much time to think of who his first call would be to.

He didn’t know for sure, because he hadn’t officially been told, but he intended on phoning his father, Craig, to tell him that he made the NHL roster.

Laughton accepted a congratulatory handshake from locker neighbor Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, although like the Frenchman, he refused to believe it until he saw it for himself.

It was about a year ago that Bellemare didn’t believe reporters when they told him he made the roster. Only eight other Frenchmen had made the NHL before him. He said he didn’t believe it until opening night.

In Laughton’s case, he couldn’t bring himself to believe it because he’s been here before. The 2012 first-round pick played 31 games last season, but didn’t finish the season in the NHL. He also played five games in his draft year before being sent back and made the roster two seasons ago, only to be a healthy scratch and got sent back to juniors after the season opener.

“Definitely when I was 18 and starting those five games during the lockout year, I don’t think I took them for granted but (now) I definitely know how hard it is to make the league and stay there, too,” Laughton said. “That’s the biggest thing. Staying here. I’m going to do everything I can to stay here, work as hard as I can.”

The Flyers moved mountains (of millions) to make it happen because he earned it.

Monday the team put $30 million defenseman Andrew MacDonald on waivers with the intent of putting him in the American Hockey League. MacDonald becoming a Lehigh Valley Phantom puts the Flyers at 23 players on the roster and $670,000 under the salary cap.

“Mac’s a good player,” general manager Ron Hextall said. “We can’t forget that. I’m convinced he’s going to be back in the NHL being a productive player at some point. The dollars that everybody has, you’ve got to balance your cap and everything else. Sometimes it leads you to make decisions like this one.”

MacDonald is in the second year of a six-season contract that carries an annual salary-cap hit of $5 million. Per Article 50.5 of the collective bargaining agreement, the Flyers only get $950,000 of cap relief by sending him to the minors if he were to clear. Any other team can claim MacDonald before noon Tuesday, but they’d have to foot the whole bill. The Flyers wouldn’t be on the hook for any money and would potentially lose an asset for nothing.

The team could have sent Laughton down to the minors without waivers and not risked losing a player, but he was too good during training camp for the Flyers to feel that was a good idea.

“Scotty pushed hard and I give him credit because he had to come in here and really make us a better team and thus far that’s what he’s done,” Hextall said. “We’re a better team with Scott Laughton on our team. Give the kid credit. He pushed the envelope and made this team.”

Putting MacDonald on waivers made the most sense to Hextall because it’s extremely unlikely a team pays the $25.75 MacDonald is owed until 2020. If the team had opted to put Brandon Manning and his $625,000 contract on waivers, or even Luke Schenn with a $3.6 million cap hit on waivers, there was a decent chance they wouldn’t have cleared.

MacDonald, 29, has two goals and 14 assists in 77 games with the Flyers since being acquired via trade in March 2014. Although he started out well for the Flyers, effective in the playoff stretch that season, he started to turn the puck over more and play with less confidence. Being benched six times last season certainly contributed to that.

The decision to keep Laughton instead wasn’t taken lightly. The 21-year-old center will have a big role on the team. He will likely be tasked with shutting down the opponents’ top line, although perhaps not all at once.

When the Flyers start the season against the Tampa Bay Lightning Thursday, there’s a good chance he’ll end up spending at least some of the night trying to shut down Steven Stamkos, Ryan Callahan and Jonathan Drouin.

“I wouldn’t be looking at that as a sole role for Scotty and (Matt Read) and (R.J. Umberger),” coach Dave Hakstol said. “I wouldn’t say that’s the case. Will that be part of their role? Yes, it will. Scotty needs to be very good two ways. He’s got to be hard nosed. He has to be reliable.”

Saturday, Laughton’s locker was moved from near the door where the call-ups usually are to the other side of the room, where the regulars sit. Teammates congratulated him then, pranking him that he had made the team then. They quickly apologized, because joking about an NHL job was a little too far, even for a bunch of early-20-somethings who like to poke fun at one another.

“They know I can take it,” Laughton said with a laugh on Monday.

At that time, he hadn’t been told by Hextall yet that the job was his. Soon enough, he’ll believe it himself. And Craig Laughton will get a happy phone call.

Dave Isaac; (856) 486-2479; disaac@gannettnj.com .