Turning Blue
At the same time, a very similar story was unfolding with Columbus and their young centre, Pierre-Luc Dubois. Dubois was taken one place below Laine in 2016 and also had a good start to his career, which had quickly petered out.
It was clear that both young players needed a change of scenery, and so the Jets sent Laine and Jack Roslovic to the Blue Jackets for Dubois and a third round pick. It was a move looking to jump-start both young players careers, and either help push Winnipeg over the hump to further playoff success, or for the Blue Jackets to see any sort of success as a franchise.
To say Dubois time in Winnipeg was tumultuous would be an understatement. His time as a Jet was marred with questions on his output and drive. He would eventually sign a big deal in Los Angeles, only to not make it past one year before being dealt to the Washington Capitals.
Laine's time in Columbus was slightly better, while the team was much worse. The Columbus Blue Jackets have never been a particularly good team, despite all efforts and good drafting. The closest the team has been to good was when they loaded up as a low seed in the playoffs and knocked off the best regular season team of all time in Tampa Bay, and nothing else of note.
Laine's time in Columbus was odd to say the least. He hasn't played more than 56 games in a single season as a Blue Jacket, however, his numbers while he plays have been pretty great. His first full season in Columbus he scored 56 points in 56 games, and was just 3 points below a point-per-game in his next season.
Last season was basically a wash. Laine only played 18 games, due to a myriad of injuries and off ice issues, and it was clear once again that Laine needed a change of scenery.
The Bleu-Blanc-et-Rouge
The reign of Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton has been punctuated by one simple philosophy: buy low. The first big acquisition was Kirby Dach, who, outside of tearing his ACL and MCL in the first game of last season, has been a runaway success.
The next year was Alex Newhook from the Colorado Avalanche. While Newhook wasn't the same success as Dach, he still had a solid year. He broke his career highs in goals and points, but also missed almost 30 games due to injury.
This year, the man of the hour is Patrik Laine. He has the highest draft pedigree of the players mentioned above, is older and further into his development, but also has much more success than Dach or Newhook.
Even those years in Columbus were still pretty good. If he kept up his pace in his first full year in Columbus, he would have scored 38 goals and 82 points, which is still pretty good. That would be far and away better than any player the Canadiens had that year. Matter of fact, just transplanting his stats onto the 2021-22 Canadiens, he would lead the team in goals and be second in points in much fewer games.
Plus, Laine will likely have much better linemates in Montreal. Laine played with a rotating cast of linemates, some good, but most are a little bit lacking.
In 2022-23, Laine played some time early in the season with Johnny Gaudreau, who is a very good hockey player, but that playing time almost disappeared later in the year. The most common linemates in 2022-23 were Jack Roslovic, Kent Johnson, Boone Jenner and Kirill Marchenko.
Johnson and Marchenko are still very young and growing as players, where Jenner and Roslovic are fine, but not the most complimentary to a skilled sniper like Laine. Similar story with what little he played in 2023-24. Laine played with rookie Adam Fantilli, Alexandre Texier, Dmitri Voronkov, Boone Jenner and Yegor Chinakhov. All young, developing players (minus Jenner).
When Laine starts the season with the Canadiens, he will have really good linemates, like Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Kirby Dach and/or Alex Newhook. These are all better players right now compared to those Blue Jackets players, and will compliment Laine's skills better.
So, is this Laine's last chance? Likely not really. But it might be his last really good shot at finding footing in the league.
He is good enough to always have a spot somewhere, even if its just as a roster spot on teams like Chicago or Utah trying to reach the cap floor, or mentors for their young players, but this feels like the last hope in keeping his career away from being a rental gun-for-hire.
Time will tell if this year Laine beats the allegations and has a fantastic season with the Habs or not. But it will be fun to watch either way.
