Teams don't lose games on purpose, look at Zona, how are they winning games without their 1st D-pair, 6-3-4 since the TDL. The good news is this winning streak is almost completely driven by young players, and TDA (GF/GA 11-2 on this homestand). That bodes well going forward.
Frost had his second best game of the season, again, like Zona, against a team that doesn't play a tough forecheck so he had more time and space. He's showing the skill package, the next step for him is to bring it against teams that play tougher defense. That's the learning curve he has to climb to be a legitimate 2C.
Laughton simply isn't a center outside of 4C where he doesn't have to do much more than forecheck. He's always struggled defensively at center and doesn't have the offensive skill package to compensate. But the team lacks LWs going into next season once Hayes and JVR are gone, so they might keep him around one more year while they look for a young LW(s) to fill out the roster.