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stu cowan: acquiring patrik laine is a low-risk move by canadiens' gm
habs can afford to lose jordan harris since they have a ton of depth on the blue line with young defencemen and left-handed shots.
aug 20 2024
4 minute read
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sometimes in life — and in hockey — you have to take a risk.
canadiens gm kent hughes took a risk monday when he acquired patrik laine from the columbus blue jackets, but it wasn’t a big one.
the canadiens need to score more goals in order to become a playoff team and laine is a former 44-goal scorer with the winnipeg jets. hughes also acquired a second-round pick at the 2026 nhl draft from columbus, while giving up 24-year-old defenceman jordan harris .
the canadiens can afford to lose harris since they have a ton of depth on the blue line with young defencemen and left-handed shots. harris, who shoots left, was made a healthy scratch for eight games last season, including the season finale when youngsters lane hutson and logan mailloux were in the lineup.
the risk with laine is that his 44-goal season was back in 2017-18 and it has been five seasons since he last scored 30 goals. he also has a career plus/minus differential of minus-58. last season, the 26-year-old winger played only 18 games, scoring six goals, before suffering a broken left clavicle during a game in mid-december that required surgery. laine also entered the nhl/nhlpa player assistance program in january while dealing with mental-health issues.
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hughes noted in a video conference following monday’s deal that there is a risk/reward factor with every trade and that his job would be a lot easier if trades only had an upside. in this one, there is plenty of possible reward with laine.
the canadiens gm is a smart man and does his homework. hughes had been talking with columbus gm don waddell for a few weeks and was given permission by the blue jackets to speak with laine directly. hughes believes laine is now in a good place mentally and added that the finn was energized and excited about playing in montreal.
hughes also spoke with people who knew laine from his five years in winnipeg after the jets made him the no. 2 overall pick at the 2016 nhl draft and from his four seasons in columbus.
hughes didn’t want to get into all the details about who he spoke with. but pascal vincent, who was head coach of the blue jackets last season and an assistant coach in columbus for the previous two seasons, was hired by the canadiens last month to coach the ahl’s laval rocket. vincent would know laine very well. hughes did say that jeff gorton, the canadiens’ executive vice-president of hockey operations, and head coach martin st. louis also spoke with laine over the weekend.
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“we came away from that conversation very satisfied,” hughes said.
un message de · a message from
— canadiens montréal (@canadiensmtl) august 19, 2024
patty laine 💬#gohabsgo pic.twitter.com/bpqj7jnfoy
the fact laine only has two seasons remaining on his contract factored into hughes’s decision to make the trade. with an us$8.7 million salary-cap hit, laine will become the highest-paid player on the canadiens, moving ahead of captain nick suzuki and his us$7.875 million cap hit.
laine was looking for a fresh start and wanted out of columbus, so the blue jackets gave the canadiens access to his medical file.
“we also spoke to him about montreal and the pressure that comes with this market,” hughes said. “he didn’t shy away from it at all. in fact, i think he is looking for this type of a market to come play in.”
canadiens players will be looking forward to laine joining them as part of the rebuilding process after missing the playoffs for the last three seasons. hughes said at the end of last season that the team’s young players deserved to be given a boost in terms of playoff hopes next season and laine will help with that. the gm noted that he worked on boosting the team’s offence for the future by selecting forwards ivan demidov (fifth overall) and michael hage (21st overall) in the first round of this year’s nhl draft and that laine can help them in the present.
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“to me, this isn’t a transaction that either he scores 40 or 50 or it’s a bust,” hughes said about laine. “far from it. my relay to him was: ‘if you come here ready to contribute to this team, to do everything in your power to help us get to a place — and if that’s the opportunity that you’re looking for — then say no more. that’s what i want to hear from you. whether you score 20 goals or 40 goals, your success here is not going to be defined strictly by goals. it’s going to be defined by your ability to help contribute to this team and help us.’
“we’re very young and he may be young at 26, but that still makes him an older statesman on the montreal canadiens and we’re hoping that as such he’ll do his part to help and teach our young players,” hughes added. “we talked to him about that, about you look back at your time when you came to winnipeg as a young, 18-year-old hockey player and you think about the people and things that helped you be successful and the people or things that occurred that maybe made it more difficult to be successful and carry that forward to the montreal canadiens and help us and help those players succeed.”
this is a low-risk move by hughes that could have a big reward.
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