Sooner or later, Montreal Canadiens forward Patrik Laine will be ready to return, but will there be room for him on this new and improved version of the Habs?
Montreal Canadiens coach Martin St-Louis often said before the Olympic break that, despite having been at practice with a regular jersey for weeks, Finnish sniper Patrik Laine had not been medically cleared to play. On October 25, the team announced that he needed core muscle surgery and would miss three to four months, which worked out to a return toward the end of January or February.
When the league resumes its activity at the end of the month, that timeline will have passed, and on paper, Laine should be ready to return. Last year, when he returned from a knee injury, he was welcomed with open arms and went on an absolute goal-scoring tear. This year, though, things are different. The Canadiens are the third most productive team in the league with 197 goals, just one behind the Edmonton Oilers and 14 goals behind the league-leading Colorado Avalanche.
Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes said last season that Montreal wouldn’t have made the playoffs without Laine’s 20 goals, and they were right, but this team has grown by leaps and bounds since then. The young Canadiens have matured, and they now have a real top six made up of not just offensively gifted players but also players who are defensively responsible and have fully bought into what the coach is selling.
The truth of the matter is, there’s not really any room for the Finn on the Canadiens’ top six, even though Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield need a regular winger. As offensively gifted as he is, he wouldn’t be a great fit there because they are always getting tough matchups against the opponents’ best lines. Even with all the goodwill in the world, Laine is not the player you want facing the most dangerous competition.
There’s no denying that Laine could probably help the Canadiens’ power play. They’re the seventh most productive faceoff in the league with a 23.9% success rate, so there’s room for improvement. But in the five games he played at the start of the season, his shot timing was so off that he couldn’t unleash his patented one-timer. Was that a product of the core muscle injury? Perhaps, but would the impact Laine could make on the power play be worth putting up with the disadvantage at even strength?
Sadly for Laine, it looks like the Canadiens have outgrown their need for the often-injured forward, which is why they are now open to moving him on the trade market while retaining part of his salary, according to Eric Engels. However, they’re not willing to add a sweetener to the deal since they feel he can still be an effective complementary piece for a contender’s attack.
Could a trade to the Carolina Hurricanes be in the cards? It’s one of his rumoured destinations, and they do have cap space according to Puckpedia, on top of having a few Finns on their roster who could work well with Laine, like Sebastian Aho and the sniper’s former teammate with the Winnipeg Jets, Nikolaj Ehlers.
It’s possible that any suitor would like to see what they’re buying before concluding a deal, though, so Montreal may have to insert him in the lineup to show that he is indeed good to go after his surgery. Whatever happens, Laine’s status will be one of the stories to follow when the Canadiens are back in action.
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