Patrik Laine is not lucky. When the Montreal Canadiens traded for him, he was hoping to get his career back on track and become an integral part of the team’s success, but last year, a new injury derailed his start, and a finger injury ended his season. This year, it’s a core muscle injury that has just landed him on LTIR, as his recovery time after the surgery is estimated at three to four months.
At the earliest, he could be back at the end of January, if not, the end of February. This is awful news for a player who was playing in his contract year and struggling to find his place in Martin St-Louis’ lineup this season. It’s not that Laine wasn’t trying; you could actually see him try to play a better game on both sides of the puck, but it didn’t come naturally for him, and as a result, it was tricky to find a line for him to play on.
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The Laine, Kirby Dach, and Ivan Demidov experiment didn’t last long, as it was determined that putting the rookie with two players trying to find their game wasn’t exactly fair to the rookie. While the rookie landed with Alex Newhook and Oliver Kapanen on a line that immediately clicked, Dach played with Zachary Bolduc and Brendan Gallagher. Things weren’t as smooth for Laine, who started the season with Jake Evans and Josh Anderson. Not that the veterans aren’t good players, but Laine’s game just didn’t fit with them. They struggled out of the game and only found their rhythm once Gallagher rejoined them after Dach and Laine’s injuries.
GM Kent Hughes said at the end of last season that the Canadiens wouldn’t have made the playoffs without Laine, which was true; he scored 20 goals, 15 of which came on the power play. This season, however, even on the power play, things weren’t clicking. It’s not that he wasn’t getting opportunities; Demidov kept feeding his cross-zone passes when he was in space, but he couldn’t get the timing right to unleash that big shot of his.
In other words, as much as he tried, things weren’t working for Laine this season. Since he went down with an injury, the Canadiens have a 3-2-0 record, and his former linemates have done better now that they are reunited with Gallagher. As for Demidov, who was given Suzuki as a new target on the second wave of the power play, he’s now been promoted to the top man-advantage unit.
Would it be fair to say that the Laine acquisition was a gamble that failed? I don’t think so. As mentioned above, he was part of the reason why the Habs made the playoffs last year, and Kent Hughes never said he picked up Laine to make him a part of his core. He got him as extra firepower, and that’s precisely what he was. Furthermore, the Canadiens only had to give up Jordan Harris to acquire him. While Harris was a good all-around defenseman, he wasn’t great at any particular side of the game, and he had become surplus to requirements with the Canadiens’ blueline being so crowded. At the end of the season, the Columbus Blue Jackets didn’t even give him a qualifying offer, and he joined the Boston Bruins as a free agent. The Canadiens haven’t even gotten to use the pick they got from Columbus as an incentive to pick up Laine, a second-round pick at the 2026 draft.
For the Canadiens, the trade can be considered a success so far, given last year’s playoff qualification, but for Laine himself? Unfortunately, it hasn’t been. It’s safe to say that he hasn’t done enough to deserve a contract extension with the Canadiens since it looked like the team outgrew its need for him early this season.
Has he done enough to earn another deal somewhere in the NHL? Maybe, but it won’t be on a big contract. It’s a shame; it’s hard not to feel for a player who has already been through so much in his career. He’s got plenty of talent, and he’s only 27 years old. He might fit in better on a team that doesn’t play the same way as the Canadiens. He’s not really suited for a team that wants to defend as a five-person unit, like what St-Louis is putting in place in Montreal.
Ideally, when he’s ready to come back, the Canadiens will be able to send him to a team that’s not on his 10-team no-trade list, and he’ll be able to bounce back and earn a new contract elsewhere. Before then, it feels like Hughes will have been able to trade for another player who fits better in St-Louis’ system, because right now the Habs have three working lines and one that’s not really clicking with Bolduc, Dach, and Joe Veleno. If Hughes manages to find that elusive second-line center, St-Louis may be able to see four working combinations.
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