Brandon Carlo and Scott Laughton will make their Maple Leafs debuts as Toronto looks to begin its post-deadline stretch drive on the right foot against a reinforced Colorado Avalanche team (7 p.m. EST, Sportsnet/CBC).
Game Day Quotes
Scott Laughton on the whirlwind 24 hours and the opportunity to join his hometown team:
It has been pretty quick. I got in last night. Today’s game is earlier. I ate some food and got a little bit of sleep, and I am really excited. It is a cool moment. There is a lot of change, but I am really excited to jump right in and get going here.
Emotions were high yesterday. I grew up in Philly and have a lot of great friendships with the staff and everyone there. You spend a lot of time and a lot of hours.
To come here and have my family all at home — my parents are in Oakville — is a cool feeling. I just thought about my dad being able to drive down to my games. That is a pretty cool feeling.
I am really, really excited. It is cool to come to a team like this. There is such great talent here. To get a chance at the playoffs again is something that I wanted.
Laughton on the Leafs team he’s joining:
The talent is really high. They brought in [Stolarz], and with Woll, their goaltending has been really good for them this year. Their backend is big and heavy. It makes it hard to play through the middle. We all know some of the guys up front who can put the puck in the back of the net.
I just want to add a little bit of energy and grit and make it easy for those guys to go out and do their jobs.
Brandon Carlo on the opportunity to join the Leafs:
I have played against these guys a lot in the last couple of years. I have so much respect for the offensive talent.
Overall, looking at the group on paper right now, I am really excited about the opportunity we have in front of us. I just want to fill in the best that I can, facilitate these guys, and not get in the way too much. I am excited to play with and learn from some world-class players here.
Carlo on last year’s playoff series vs. the Leafs:
It was a very close series — a hard series. It was a lot of fun. There was a lot of back-and-forth. With their goal-scoring capabilities, we had to defend really, really hard to be able to get through that series.
I am excited to be on this side of it now. It is going to be a lot of fun to hopefully string some wins a long.
Carlo on the opportunity to play with Morgan Rielly:
I am really excited to play with him, first and foremost.
Playing against him, I loved his play-making ability. He is a guy I would watch on the bench and try to learn things from with the way he is pursuing pucks going back to the defensive zone, the way he is able to move it, and his offensive ability to facilitate a lot of things along the blue line. The way that he can move is pretty impressive.
There is a lot to be learned from him. I hope that we can create a good partnership.
Carlo on whether it is awkward to play for a team he probably hated just over 24 hours ago:
I don’t think so. I have played plenty of games against these guys. I have communicated on the ice with some of them, even. You know, within the hockey world, that there are a bunch of stand-up guys. I am happy about the way they have welcomed me in so far.
Craig Berube on the additions of Laughton and Carlo:
We have two character people and experienced guys. One is a centerman, which we wanted to get, and a right-handed D.
Carlo has been a very good defender and PK guy in Boston for a number of years. Laughton has been a very good player in Philly and has a lot of experience. He plays with energy and PKs. He has a lot of grit to him.
They are both character people and good teammates. They make us a deeper team. On our D pairs, we have more room to work with, with the righty-lefty combinations. And they’re experienced — two experienced guys who have played a long time in this league.
Berube on the potential of the McMann – Laughton – Domi line:
You have a passer with Max, McMann with speed and heaviness, and Laughton is an up-and-down centerman. He does a good job in the middle of the ice. He can play center or wing, so I have a hybrid there with Max. We will see how it goes.
Berube on the potential of the Rielly-Carlo pairing:
You have a guy who stays home and has been that way for a long time. He has played with a puck mover most of his career, and he has that with Rielly. We’ll see how it goes.
Avalanche head coach on the debuts of Brock Nelson and Charlie Coyle:
These guys are good players. There is a good, well-rounded 200-foot game from all of those guys. We are going to throw them right into the fire tonight.
When you meet with some of those veteran guys on systems stuff, there are some differences, and there are some similarities, but you can tell just from talking to them right away that they have played for different coaches, played under different systems, and they are picking it up quick. They are asking the right questions.
I expect them to come into our lineup and provide similar things they provided to their last team, which we liked and is why they are here. They add strength and size down the middle, which always helps in all three zones, whether it is creating offense by getting off the walls and getting to the net front, or if it is in the d-zone closing plays out and getting us in and out of the zone.
Especially the two centermen; they are used to playing down low against top competition. They are big-bodied guys who can do that and have a really good understanding of what their role is. I am excited to see them play and get this thing to all come together.
Bednar on the many changes to his roster during the season:
We have had a lot of additions. That is eight guys we’ve added during the year. They all play significant roles. We need this time, in my opinion, to get dialed in, so I know how to deploy guys and where to trust them, and for them to get on the same page. We will have to play around with chemistry a bit.
On paper, if you look at the strength down the middle and the veteran presence, we have a lot of committed checking-type players who are doing a nice job and have done a nice job all year. We are finally healthy with some depth.
Now, we have to go out and prove it.
Bednar on Mikko Rantanen signing in Dallas for eight years:
I am happy that Mikko signed and got a deal in a place where he wanted to go or a destination where he felt comfortable signing an eight-year deal. He is a great teammate and was a great player for us. We were able to win together, and I will never forget that.
It is going to be tough playing Dallas. It makes them better right away. We feel we have gotten better. It is going to be interesting. It will be a lot of fun playing against those guys, if we are able to get there.
I wish him the best — just not against us.
Head-to-Head Stats: Maple Leafs (38-21-3) vs. Avalanche (37-24-2)
In the 2024-25 regular season statistics, Toronto holds the advantage in three out of five offensive categories, but Colorado holds the advantage in three out of five defensive categories.
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
Forwards
#23 Matthew Knies — #34 Auston Matthews — #16 Mitch Marner
#29 Pontus Holmberg — #91 John Tavares — #88 William Nylander
#74 Bobby McMann — #24 Scott Laughton — #11 Max Domi
#18 Steven Lorentz — #64 David Kampf — #89 Nick Robertson
Defensemen
#44 Morgan Rielly — #25 Brandon Carlo
#22 Jake McCabe — #95 Oliver Ekman-Larsson
#2 Simon Benoit — Philippe Myers
Goaltenders
Starter: #41 Anthony Stolarz
#60 Joseph Woll
Extras: Calle Jarnkrok
Injured (IR): Chris Tanev
Injured (LTIR): Jani Hakanpää, Max Pacioretty
Colorado Avalanche Projected Lines
Forwards
#62 Artturi Lehkonen — #29 Nathan MacKinnon — #88 Martin Necas
#13 Valeri Nichushkin — #11 Brock Nelson — #27 Jonathan Drouin
#25 Logan O’Connor — #10 Charlie Coyle — #20 Ross Colton
#94 Joel Kiviranta — #18 Jack Drury — #26 Jimmy Vesey
Defensemen
#7 Devon Toews — #8 Cale Makar
#55 Ryan Lindgren — #42 Josh Manson
#49 Samuel Girard — #67 Keaton Middleton
Goaltenders
Starter: #39 Mackenzie Blackwood
#41 Scott Wedgewood
Injured: Tucker Poolman, Gabriel Landeskog
