The Philadelphia Flyers will be without Scott Laughton for the next little while and have placed him on injured reserve. Laughton is dealing with an upper-body injury and is expected to miss two weeks, according to Adam Kimelman of NHL.com.
In his place, the team has recalled Jackson Cates from the AHL. The team also released injury updates on several other players. Travis Konecny will be out 10-14 days with an upper-body injury, Wade Allison is out two or three weeks with a hip pointer, and Cam Atkinson remains week-to-week. Sean Couturier and James van Riemsdyk are still on their respective schedules after surgery.
Laughton, 28, was seeing more ice time than ever before in his career, averaging more than 19 minutes a night through his first 18 appearances. That resulted in seven points on the year to go along with his regular brand of physical hockey.
He had been moved to wing recently, a move that the team also made with Kevin Hayes last night, with head coach John Tortorella explaining that he trusted Noah Cates more defensively in the middle of the ice.
That position has been a challenge this season for the Flyers, who don’t have a single center even above 48% on faceoffs and few players living up to their potential. Hayes and Konecny lead the team in scoring with 19 points but beyond those two and Owen Tippett, no other player even has five goals on the year.
Jackson Cates, the older of the two brothers, was scoreless in three games with the Flyers earlier this year. In 11 contests with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, he has scored four goals and seven points.