Brad Treliving wanted — and needed — to check at least two boxes ahead of Friday’s NHL trade deadline: a right-shooting defenceman to play in the top four and a third-line centre.
The Maple Leafs general manager checked one emphatically in Brandon Carlo and the other … well, that remains to be seen.
Let’s start with Carlo, who’s like a better, younger version of Luke Schenn but with less bite.
That’s the whole point of adding Carlo: to have him play the Schenn role (circa 2023) next to Morgan Rielly on the No. 2 pair, but with more upside, and do so for the postseason and then two more after that.
The defenders who tend to click with Rielly — TJ Brodie, Schenn, Ron Hainsey — look a lot like Carlo. They play simple games and they defend hard, especially around the net. They free Rielly up to do Rielly things.
In some ways, then, this isn’t just a trade for Carlo. It’s a trade for Carlo and, theoretically, the best possible version of Rielly. There’s also the trickle-down effect on Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who can suddenly play a more suitable third-pairing role at age 33, the kind he thrived in last spring as a member of the Stanley Cup-winning Florida Panthers.
Mike Van Ryn, the assistant coach who runs the Leafs defence, has so much more flexibility now with Carlo in the mix.
If, for some reason, the Rielly-Carlo connection isn’t there, which seems unlikely, the Leafs will be able to move the puzzle pieces around in other ways that still work. Carlo could play with either Jake McCabe, Ekman-Larsson or Simon Benoit.
He is the insulation on the right defence the Leafs lacked (which became apparent when Chris Tanev got hurt recently) and wanted, dating back to last summer when an attempt to sign Matt Roy came up short. The 6-foot-5 Carlo has precisely the kind of length Treliving prizes on the back end, and he blocks a ton of shots.
He will be a major upgrade on Conor Timmins on the penalty kill.
Brandon Carlo’s length and size will be an asset for the Leafs. (John E. Sokolowski / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
The Leafs paid a real price for him, moving Fraser Minten and a first-round pick in the 2026 draft (top-five protected). That price feels suitable given Carlo’s fit, his age (28) and the two additional years left on his contract, with a reduced cap hit of $3.48 million.
Long anticipated, the fit with Laughton isn’t quite as clear-cut or appealing and feels a bit like a consolation prize after failed bids for Ryan O’Reilly, Brayden Schenn and Brock Nelson.
O’Reilly wasn’t interested in a Toronto return, and the Blues’ price to even consider moving Schenn was high. He also had no-trade protection that could have scuttled a trade. The Leafs didn’t have a prospect as good as Calum Ritchie to deal for Brock Nelson. (Minten and a first wasn’t cutting it, and Easton Cowan plus a first would have been too much for a rental.)
The Leafs preferred Laughton to Yanni Gourde, a pending unrestricted free agent who went back to Tampa earlier in the week.
It doesn’t feel safe to assume that the Leafs have solved their third-line centre problem with Laughton. There are Alex Kerfoot/Max Domi vibes here in the sense that Laughton is one of those guys who can play centre but maybe shouldn’t.
He played mostly wing on a rebuilding Philadelphia team for the first four months of the season, only to slide back to the middle when Morgan Frost was dealt to Calgary. (There’s a world in which Laughton ends up on the wing with the Leafs this season, with Domi or Pontus Holmberg returning to the middle.)
Flyers coach John Tortorella seemed to prefer more speed than Laughton could offer in the middle. And Laughton, as a result, bounced all over the lineup, even playing on the fourth line at times. His minutes dipped as low as 8.5 in November.
Laughton may be a safer defensive option than Domi, but he isn’t O’Reilly.
Leafs coach Craig Berube, who coached a very young version of Laughton in Philadelphia once upon a time, might not be able to bury a Laughton-led line in the defensive zone against top competition and get away with it.
This means the Leafs might still have to rely on John Tavares and Auston Matthews for the most challenging duties. That was something Treliving hoped to solve with his centre acquisition.
The other thing: Laughton might not score or produce much offence, which was another part of Treliving’s profile of an ideal acquisition in the middle.
Laughton scored three goals in his first 29 games this season and only four times in the last 30 games as a Flyers player. Four of his 11 goals this season came in one December game.
Laughton holds career highs of 18 goals and 43 points, which both came two seasons ago when he was logging over 18 minutes a night. His other seasons mostly fall into the range of 10-13 goals and 25-30 points.
He did score five times in 15 playoff games in 2020 but did so by shooting a blistering 25 percent.
When the Leafs need a goal late in a game, they are unlikely to look Laughton’s way much. He’s not a boost in that sense like Nelson would have been and like the Leafs might well need in a series against Florida or Tampa.
Two years ago, the Leafs struggled to generate any offence in the second round against a Panthers team that’s arguably even better today. This Leafs team has a more advanced version of Matthew Knies than they did then and a streaky scorer in Bobby McMann.
But perhaps more so now, even with Laughton essentially filling the O’Reilly spot, the Leafs will need monster performances night after night from their stars.
They might regret not adding more punch at the deadline than Laughton can offer.
Unlike O’Reilly, Schenn, Nelson or Charlie Coyle, who was dealt to Colorado, Laughton isn’t a viable fallback option for second-line centre duties — not this season and not next if Tavares doesn’t return. (This might even increase the pressure to re-sign Tavares.)
What is appealing about Laughton?
He plays hard and with no fear. He’ll kill penalties and is the kind of player who will be comfortable when times are tense. And he’s from Toronto, so the experience of playing for the Leafs should mean that much more to him. He is also known for being an awesome teammate.
Perhaps Laughton can join forces with two of McMann, Domi, Calle Järnkrok, Nick Robertson, Max Pacioretty (now on LTIR) and Holmberg on a third line that can pitch in with a few goals throughout a seven-game series and be difficult to play against.
The upside just doesn’t feel especially high. There’s a whiff of the Leafs’ 2021 trade for Nick Foligno here.
Laughton isn’t as accomplished as Foligno was, or as old — he turns 31 in May; Foligno was 33. Nor is he the same injury risk. But his appeal feels similarly based on intangibles, with limited offensive potential.
And the Leafs gave up a 2027 first-round pick to get Laughton — for this year and next, mind you, for only $1.5 million on the cap.
That cost might not have been necessary had the Leafs’ plans at centre-ice come through at the start of preseason with William Nylander lining up in the middle. Berube scrapped that plan, which intrigued the front office, before it even had a chance to succeed.
Which meant Treliving had no choice but to spend the entire season pursuing other options. Were there bigger swings to take? Was there a way to get Carlo and Coyle? A way to persuade O’Reilly to return? Only the Leafs can know for sure. And what about the noise around a Mikko Rantanen acquisition? Was it real? And if so, what were the Leafs prepared to give up?
A swing like that — depending on what it cost — might have upped the team’s ceiling more than this haul ended up doing.
The Leafs may have faced a choice after pursuits elsewhere came up short: Add Laughton for a high price or move forward with what they had internally, which wasn’t good enough. And if that’s the choice, it’s hard to blame them for taking a chance on Laughton, even if it’s a costly move that doesn’t have nearly the same ceiling-raising potential as the swings that fellow contenders like Florida, Tampa, Dallas and Colorado all took.
If this is enough, and the Leafs end a nearly 60-year championship drought, it probably won’t be because of Laughton or Carlo, even if they do add something.
It’ll be because the foundation of the team — Matthews, Nylander, Tavares, Rielly and Mitch Marner — are finally so overwhelming for so long that they carry the Leafs to the promised land.
(Top photo of Brad Treliving: Dan Hamilton / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
