Patrik Laine has been the talk of the league this Summer, the second-overall pick at the 2016 draft asked to be traded out of Columbus after spending half a season in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program. According to reports, he sought help for mental health issues, which may be a bit of a concern in a looking-glass market like Montreal, but this is a really low-risk for the Canadiens.
GM Kent Hughes has been very open about wanting to improve his top-six this off-season and had struck out both at the draft and on the free agency market, but where there's a will, there's a way.
Clearly, Hughes is confident Laine can thrive in this market, otherwise he wouldn't have pulled the trigger on the deal. The Canadiens GM always leaves very little down to luck and you can be certain he made his due diligence before making the trade.
A little over a month ago, when Pascal Vincent was announced as the new Laval Rocket head coach. I wrote an article about this being a potential source of inside information for the Canadiens about Laine. Hughes and Vincent probably had a long conversation about the player before the deal was made, even though he wouldn't confirm it in his media availability.
Laine comes to town and shoots straight to the top of the Canadiens' salary structure with his $8.7 M contract. Fear not though, Hughes does believe he'll be able to enter the season without putting Carey Price on LTIR, thereby maximizing his cap relief by doing it when the season starts.
Laine is inked for two more years before becoming an unrestricted free agent. The fact he could be free as a bird in a couple of seasons could have been a concern, but not for what the price tag on the deal was.
Do not misunderstand me, Jordan Harris is a good and very likeable player but considering how crowded the blueline is, and the prospects that are still coming up, some room had to be made. Harris is a jack of all trades, good in every respect but not great in any of them. The writing was on the wall.
It's also worth noting Laine wants to be in Montreal. He didn't even need to waive his no-movement clause for the deal to happen as he didn't have the Canadiens on his ten-team no trade list. Furthermore, Hughes confirmed he was very enthusiastic about coming to town in a four-way phone call involving the GM, Jeff Gorton, Martin St-Louis and the player himself.
Speaking to the media, Laine mentioned he looked forward to being back in a market where hockey mattered and the people cared about the team and the players. When prompted to say if that meant they didn't in Columbus, he backtracked a bit (probably a wise choice) and explained that in Canada, hockey is the number one thing, unlike in the USA. He added he had experienced a hockey market in Winnipeg and loved every minute of it.
What kind of impact will his arrival have on the team and the dressing room? Will his high cap hit upset some of his teammate? Hughes dismissed the idea when it was put to him in his media availability as it's not a contract signed by the team. That's a good point and considering all players want to win, they'll probably see the bright side of Laine coming to town.
Which bright side? Well, firstly, his arrival gives an instant boost to the Canadiens' top-six, meaning opposing teams won't be able to just focus all their top defensive elements on the Habs top line, providing it remains formed of Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky. It's quite possible that the head coach will want to test out different combinations and see how Laine's presence could help diversify his attack. Furthermore, getting such an infusion of talent should also give a big boost to Montreal's power play. A much needed boost if I may say so.
There's no denying how talented Laine is, this is a player who scored 30-plus goals in his first three seasons in the NHL (36,44 and 30 goals). In his first four years, he racked up 64, 70, 50 and 63 points. Of course, the fact that he has since then struggled to stay healthy and in one place (he has requested a trade twice already), is a concern but this is not a player Hughes has just put all him money on in an eight-year contract extension.
Interestingly, Laine seems very confident he'll be able to get back to his former level of performance. He was asked what made him believe he'd be able to come back as say a 30-goal scoring player and he replied:
This doesn't sound like someone who's worried about how he'll do in a new market and he clearly doesn't feel the need to lower expectations even though he's well aware of the pressure that comes in a magnifying-glass market like Montreal's.
The 26-year-old also mentioned that no matter how many goals he scores, the important thing is to win. He's also looking forward to being a leader on the team, not being a 19-year-old kid anymore, he wants to help guide the young players.
Laine is exactly the kind of player who could thrive under a coach like St-Louis and in a system (or an ensemble of concepts as the coach would say) like the one the bench boss advocates for. There are some things that cannot be taught, talent is one of those things and a talented player will always be able to make better reads on plays than a player who has to fight against his instincts to make the right decision.
He really appeared excited about turning over a new leaf and doing it in Montreal, calling it the biggest hockey market there is (probably didn't make any friends in Toronto there) and he even took the time to joke with the media:
If Laine cannot go back to performing as well as he first did, it's no skin off Hughes' back. In two years his contract will be over and he can either let him walk or sign him to a deal with a lower cap hit. If he does find his form back however, this will have been a slam-dunk for the GM. Even if it is only as a stop-gap solution, all it will have cost is a defenseman surplus and Hughes even got a second-round pick for his trouble.
By trading Harris, he has also cleared up some space to perhaps allow Lane Hutson to start the season in the big league. The Northeastern alumni's departure means more ice time to go around and makes it a much more rookie friendly environment. At such an early stage of their careers, rookies have to play and keeping Hutson up makes more sense with less of a crowd around.
Laine's acquisition also means the Canadiens are no longer in as much of a rush for Ivan Demidov to come over and they can even allow him a year of development in the AHL if need be next season. Slow and steady wins the race remember? Fear not though, the upcoming season in Montreal won't be slow, the likes of Laine, Hutson and a healthy Dach should make this a season to remember for Canadiens fans.
