Scott Laughton is sticking around in the City of Angels.
The Los Angeles Kings are expected to re-sign Laughton, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported Wednesday.
Laughton, 32, was acquired by the Kings from the Toronto Maple Leafs at this past season's trade deadline, with a 2026 second-round pick going the other way. The Leafs drafted Kitchener Rangers defenceman Alexander Bilecki with that selection (60th overall).
Over 64 games split between the Kings and Leafs last season, Laughton posted 13 goals and seven assists. Of those points, five goals and three assists came following his trade to L.A.
Toronto had previously acquired the Oakville, Ont., native from the Philadelphia Flyers at the 2025 trade deadline for a first-round pick and prospect Nikita Grebenkin.
The six-foot-one centre has 121 goals and 168 assists over 745 career games in the NHL since being taken by the Flyers 20th overall in 2012.
Laughton blended well with the Kings, scoring at nearly a 20-goal pace once he landed in L.A. Despite losing in the first round of the playoffs for the fifth straight spring — this time in four games — Los Angeles GM Ken Holland is doubling down on a veteran core.
The team brought back Corey Perry — the second-oldest player in the league — on a one-year deal earlier on Wednesday, while also adding 38-year-old winger Mats Zuccarello on a one-year pact. And, of course, the club acquired 34-year-old Artemi Panarin just before the Olympic break in February and immediately inked him to an extension that keeps in California through the next two campaigns.
The Kings will obviously be hoping to make it deeper in the playoffs next time out and Laughton will surely welcome some stability in his career.
The pivot's name swirled in trade rumours for a number of seasons in Philly while the team struggled, then he spent just 12 months in Toronto before being on the move again at the 2026 deadline.
