Flyers forward Scott Laughton suffered a broken finger on his right hand during the second period of Saturday’s victory over Columbus, notes NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jordan Hall. The injury is expected to keep him out of the lineup for a month. That duration is long enough to make him eligible for LTIR which is notable considering the team has less than $150K in cap room at the moment.
It’s certainly a tough blow for Philadelphia who has come to rely on the 25-year-old as a key option for their penalty kill; his 1:39 SH ATOI per game is second on the team among their forwards. He also took a step towards becoming a reliable secondary scorer last season when he posted career bests in goals (12), assists (20), and points (32) although he was off to a bit of a quieter start this year with three assists in nine games.
In the short-term, Tyler Pitlick draws into the lineup although the team could opt to pull someone back up from AHL Lehigh Valley as well and transfer Laughton to LTIR. Rookie Carson Twarynski was recently sent down and would have to be considered a candidate to be brought back up. 2017 second overall pick Nolan Patrick should also be in the mix once he’s cleared to return from the migraine issues that have held him out all season and considering he has been skating for a few days now, that return may not be too far away.
sounds like a Frosty situation