Report: Patrik Laine Seeking "Fresh Start" Away from Columbus. Would the Red Wings Make Sense?
It appears Patrik Laine is set to move on from the Blue Jackets. Despite some obvious upside, it's unlikely the Finnish snipe would be a good fit in Detroit
After a turbulent 2023-24 season that included an extended stint in the NHLPA's Player Assistance Program, it appears Finnish sniper Patrik Laine will soon be moving on from the Columbus Blue Jackets.
According to a report from Pierre LeBrun that aired on TSN's "Insider Trading" segment, "We know that Patrik Laine entered the player assistance program, had the courage to seek help, and he’s still in the program right now. So, we have to consider that factor, but he would like to move on. His agent has had conversations with the Blue Jackets about it, and both sides are going to work together to try and get that done. He wants a fresh start; it hasn’t been a good time in Columbus."
Laine is 26 years old, with two years remaining at $8.7 million against the cap, and he's coming off a season in which he played just 18 games, scoring six goals and providing three assists. For a trade to make sense, the Blue Jackets will almost certainly have to retain on that salary, but that shouldn't be too big an obstacle to a deal as Columbus has all three retention slots available and no serious contention aspirations during that window.
With all that as context, could Laine—once upon a time the second overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft out of Tappara in the Finnish Liiga—make sense for the Red Wings?
The first and most important thing to say is, like everyone else, my biggest hope would be that Laine finds the fresh start he's seeking somewhere and that he's able to return to the form that made him appear the NHL's next great scorer when he arrived on the scene in the 2016-17 season.
Here's a look at Laine's goal production across his career. Laine is unique in that his very best production came almost immediately. His best goal scoring season wasn't somewhere in his mid-20s; it came at the ripe age of 19, when he put up 44 goals in just his second year in the league.
What followed was a (relatively) messy end to his time in Winnipeg and subsequent trade to Columbus in which Laine never seemed to quite get his legs under him in what might have been a career second act. The Blue Jackets teams Laine played for were never particularly competitive, and what seemed a brilliant theoretical marriage between his shot and Johnny Gaudreau's playmaking never delivered much by way of meaningful results.
Now at 26, Laine needs a change of scenery, and, given he and Columbus' mutual desire to get a deal done, he could realistically be had at modest cost, considering his obvious talent.
Complicating a potential trade is the simple fact that Laine has never involved into a complete 200-foot player, nor especially close to it. He is often guilty of "fishing" in puck pursuit rather than a more aggressive approach to leveraging his imposing six-foot-five frame, and his underlying numbers from throughout his career suggest he is not a useful defensive player
Ultimately, that's where the catch comes in from Detroit's perspective. Yes, Laine is talented, and he could provide the Red Wings with the kind of offensive firepower that the draft lottery has long denied them. However, his overall profile does not suit Detroit's current needs.
Last summer, Laine might have been a perfect addition for a Red Wing team looking to score more goals. However, this summer, Detroit wants to solidify itself defensively, and Laine won't help with that objective. Meanwhile, the Red Wings already brought in Alex DeBrincat to serve as a high-scoring right shot winger on the left side.
Laine is obviously still a talented player, and I'll be rooting for him wherever he winds up. I would even go as far as to say he's a good bet for some team to take. However, at this current moment, that team probably isn't Detroit.
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