Flyers give update on Scott Laughton as he recovers from concussion

Center Scott Laughton is on his road to returning to the Philadelphia Flyers, but they won’t rush him back.

Laughton, 27, sidelined by a concussion, is making progress, interim coach Mike Yeo said on Wednesday.

Yeo said Laughton will be tested Thursday and will “hopefully get cleared” to start skating.

The Flyers will not rush him back into the lineup, he added, saying there was no timeline for his return.

“We want to be smart,” Yeo said of Laughton’s return. “But certainly he’s a valuable player to us and our group, inside our locker room and with what he does on the ice.”

Lindbohm with a big clean hit on Laughton. Laughton is helped off the ice and heads to the room. from hockey

Before he was injured last Thursday, Laughton centered the top line in his last three games.

Laughton was checked awkwardly into the boards by Florida defenseman Petteri  Lindbohm in the Philadelphia Flyers’ 6-3 loss to the Panthers. Travis Konecny then got into a fight with Lindbohm, and Laughton had to be helped off the ice.

He was later diagnosed with a concussion.

Laughton has 28 points (11 goals, 17 assists) in 54 games this season. He scored a career-high 13 goals in 2019-20, and it appears he will have a chance to surpass that total later this season.

“He’s a heart and soul player,” goalie Carter Hart said of Laughton, who plays each sift with a relentless style.

The Flyers (18-30-11) have 23 games remaining. They host Nashville (35-21-4) on Thursday, when Claude Giroux will play in his 1,000th career game.

Morgan Frost, 22, has replaced Laughton in the Flyers’ lineup. Frost has one assist over the two games he has played since returning from the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

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