RDS' Francois Gagnon confirmed last night that Patrik Laine is on the trading block, but moving him won't be a simple endeavour.
During the Montreal Canadiens’ Thursday night defeat against the Buffalo Sabres, RDS insider Francois Gagnon reported that, according to his sources around the league, the Habs’ brass is open to trading Patrik Laine, but it’s easier said than done. This won’t come as a surprise to anyone, especially to the Big Finn’s wife, who posted an Instagram reel last weekend captioned: “Travelling for away games when it’s your husband’s contract year, and you’re mentally preparing for the trade deadline”.
Even though Laine’s been practicing regularly in a regular jersey, meaning he is ready to return, Martin St-Louis has yet to insert him into the lineup because doing so would require making room on his roster. The Canadiens are currently at the limit of 23 players on their active roster, so to use Laine, they’d need to either trade or waive someone; it can’t just be a matter of making a veteran a healthy scratch. Reintegrating Alexandre would be much easier since the Frenchman is on the Habs’ active roster, unlike Laine.
Furthermore, after playing the last 46 games without Laine, it’s hard to argue that the Canadiens would be better off with him on the roster, judging by what he was able to provide in the first five games of the season. Playing on the bottom six, he could only get a single assist in five games, was confined to the second power unit, and was unable to use his patented one-timer shot on the man-advantage because his timing was off.
There’s no more room on the Canadiens’ top-six than there was at the start of the season; in fact, there’s even less. Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, Alexandre Texier / Kirby Dach are locks on the top unit right now, just like Juraj Slafkovsky, Oliver Kapanen, and Ivan Demidov are also on the second line.
Unfortunately for Laine, he hasn’t got an identity suited to a bottom-six role; he’s not a grinder or an energy player. He tried as best as he could early in the season, but he just doesn’t belong there. Even without producing much, Joe Veleno, Samuel Blais (who’s currently scratched), and Zach Bolduc (who had a great game Thursday) are better than Laine would be in those roles.
Waiving him to send him down to the AHL wouldn’t be a good move, not that the Canadiens would fear losing him on waivers, but rather because his presence with the Rocket would be counterproductive. It’s highly unlikely that he’d be willing to agree to a contract termination to go try his luck with another team, as Texier did with the St. Louis Blues, given the fact that he’s earning $9.1 M this season, even though his cap hit “only” stands at $8.7 M.
It’s hard not to feel bad for the player after everything he went through over the course of his career, but even if he was able to start enjoying hockey again playing with the Canadiens last season, there doesn’t seem to be any room for him in this line up, thanks to both internal growth and Kent Hughes’ moves in the face of so many injuries.
To move him, there is no doubt that the Habs would have to retain some salary, which wouldn’t be an issue since they do have three salary retention spots available, but it could hinder Kent Hughes’ work as the trade deadline approaches. The Canadiens have reportedly shown “moderate interest” in Calgary Flames center Nazem Kadri, but they could be more interested in other players; the Habs’ GM sometimes pulls surprising moves.
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