Scott Laughton will miss the start of the 2025-26 regular season due to a lower-body injury (week-to-week).

The timing of a week-to-week injury to start the season (or any time) is never a positive, but it’s particularly difficult in Laughton’s case, knowing he was a little slow to acclimate to his new team last season but seemed to be finding a groove/chemistry in this preseason on a line with Steven Lorentz and Easton Cowan. He’s chipped in some offense in the exhibition season, been effective/prominent on the penalty kill (which already lost a key piece over the offseason) in a PK duo with Lorentz, and been part of a five-on-five unit that was showing real promise as one of the more effective fourth lines — on paper and in camp/preseason — that the team has put together in ages.

The good news is that the Leafs are in reasonable shape with their center depth, thanks to their addition of Nic Roy at 3C and an experienced fifth NHL center in David Kampf (who can also help on the PK). With cap flexibility not an issue for the Leafs this fall, avoiding a rush to move out experienced NHLers like Kampf — or Calle Jarnkrok, for that matter — until camp plays itself out has proven a wise approach. However, it opens up serious questions now as to whether Cowan starting on an NHL fourth line centered by Kampf is a sensible approach for anyone involved.

The Leafs can simply run out Lorentz-Kampf-Jarnkrok as an experienced checking/defensive-zone-start line, while Cowan plays a top role with the AHL Marlies, developing with plenty of all situations minutes and seeing the ice up or down a goal late in games. Even alongside Laughton, a credible 15+ goal, 40-ish-point player for several years in the league, the right development path for Cowan was already a subject worthy of considerable debate. With Kampf, who has reached 10 goals once in eight NHL seasons (which was four years ago) and produced just five goals and 13 points last season, it only tilts the decision further in favour of asking Cowan to prove he’s better than the AHL.

There aren’t any stories about 20-year-old players whose NHL careers never flourished to their full potential because they were asked to dominate the AHL for a few months. There are many more examples, including in Toronto, of players rushed into an NHL role because the coach took a shine to them, and in an effort to conform to a depth/checking role, the player never realizes the full upside of their skill potential in the league.

It doesn’t necessarily need to be a complete either-or, should the Leafs decide to send Cowan down after a handful of games if he isn’t playing enough and isn’t touching the puck enough/producing enough. There is also the ideal scenario where Cowan earns his way up the lineup in short order; Max Domi has warts to his game and needs to prove he can fit with Auston Matthews over the long haul vs. short stints, and players like Matias Maccelli and Dakota Joshua don’t necessarily have their top-nine lineup spots etched in stone regardless of their performance to start the season. But there has to be a development-first approach with one of the team’s top prospects when we’re likely talking about a depth role on a (should be) playoff team. 10 minutes a night on David Kampf’s wing for any serious length of time wouldn’t be doing anyone any good.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR