Word came out on social media late Monday afternoon that the Montreal Canadiens were in the process of acquiring Patrik Laine from the Columbus Blue Jackets. As more and more journalists reported the trade was happening, it became readily apparent it wasn’t a drill.
The sheer significance of the at-the-time hypothetical deal merited any initial skepticism. After all, this was a one-time 44-goal scorer still in the theoretical prime of his career. For a team currently in the midst of a full-blown rebuild, acquiring Laine seemed out of the question based solely on general manager Kent Hughes’ modus operandi up to now: slow and steady progress up the standings.
Related: NHL Rebuild Rankings: 2024-25 Preseason Edition
Of course, Hughes is no stranger to reclamation projects, especially projects taken on in the offseason. He acquired Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook at/in the lead-up to consecutive drafts, each arguably having worn out their welcome with the team that drafted them only to enjoy significant early success with the Canadiens. Still, Laine feels significantly different, here.
Laine’s “Good” and “Bad”
Different good… and bad. Not too long ago, Laine was a legitimate star on the rise and a point-per-game player, at least in principle. In 2022-23 for example, he scored 52 points in 55 games with the Blue Jackets. In 2021-22, he scored 56 in 56. No stranger to polarization, both in how he’s viewed by fans across the league and his level of production, he sandwiched those two seasons with a 24-point-in-46-game effort in 2020-21 and an underwhelming nine-point 2023-24 (18 games).
Mid-season, Laine entered the NHL/NHL Players’ Association Player Assistance Program only to eventually get cleared, having reportedly long since requested a trade out of town. These are what you would call “flags.” Canadiens fans should be all too familiar, having seen them firsthand in slightly different, separate circumstances before. They didn’t really work out before either.
Remember, ex-GM Marc Bergevin promptly traded forward Zack Kassian to the Edmonton Oilers for goalie Ben Scrivens in late 2025, after the former spent a few months in the league’s substance abuse and behavioral program. Acquired the previous summer from the Vancouver Canucks for Brandon Prust, Kassian never even got a chance to don a Canadiens jersey in a regular-season game.
Laine vs. Drouin
A few years later, Bergevin infamously acquired native-son Jonathan Drouin from the Tampa Bay Lightning, despite him having refused to report to the American Hockey League (and requested a trade to boot). A promising, young defenseman in Mikhail Sergachev, with a skill set that would have made him the perfect complement to Shea Weber, which the Canadiens needed at the time, went back the other way, making the deal a huge mistake on paper. In practice, that sad reality came to fruition.
Seeing as defenseman Jordan Harris is the price tag in this instance (with the Canadiens also acquiring a 2026 second-round pick), the acquisition of Drouin, another offensively gifted, one-time top draft pick, is a fairly decent measuring stick. So, what’s the difference here?
Whereas the Canadiens needed Sergachev, there’s a logjam on defense currently, specifically on Harris’ left side. In competition with Mike Matheson, Kaiden Guhle, Arber Xhekaj and Jayden Struble, Harris would have had a hard time moving up the lineup. Head coach Martin St. Louis even took to regularly deploying him on the right side instead. So, even though Harris projects as a stable top-four defenseman, one could argue trading him for just a second-round pick would have made sense.
Laine vs. Dubois
So, forget Laine. “Stable” is the operative word there too. That isn’t in reference to his time spent in the Player Assistance Program, but more so whether he will amount to a distraction in the locker room. After all, his trade to the Blue Jackets from the Winnipeg Jets, the team that drafted him second overall in 2016, in part originated from a trade request out of there, too.
For some perspective, Laine is now on his third NHL team at Age 26. So, this has the capacity to not work out, with Laine headed to unrestricted free agency in 2026. For those not keeping track, that is literally three sixes in a row.
From Laine‘s perspective, that would make it his fourth team by Age 28 if it doesn’t. So, it’s in everyone’s best interest to make the most of this upcoming feeling-out process over the next two seasons. If it does work out though, it has the capacity to be far longer, making Harris (and a negative second-round pick) an inexpensive price tag.
Compare and contrast to what the Los Angeles Kings gave up for Pierre-Luc Dubois (a lot). Furthermore, a year into his eight-year, $68 million extension, Dubois, for whom Laine was coincidentally traded by the Jets, was dealt again for pennies on the dollar to the Washington Capitals due to his ineffectiveness. So, the two years may work out for the best, but the hope should be that Laine pans out as the major coup the Canadiens have needed for ages, mere months after they drafted a potential superstar in Ivan Demidov.
Many probably have doubts Laine will mesh within the organization and the “winning” culture the Canadiens have developed over the last few seasons. That’s where the comparison to Kassian may come into play. It should be another (minor) regret of Bergevin’s that he didn’t give him more of a chance, “rehab” being short for rehabilitation and all. As was argued at the time, if a player successfully makes it through a program like that, they almost by definition have earned a second chance. Kassian went on to become a serviceable NHLer for the Oilers for seven seasons, give or take. Scrivens was out of the NHL after that 2015-16 campaign, getting in just 15 games with the Habs.
Laine a Low-Risk, High-Reward Acquisition by Hughes
Sure, Hughes is taking an $8.7 million (Laine’s cap hit) risk here, but it’s a mitigated one, considering what they’re giving up, but also the due diligence the Canadiens rendered ahead of time. Talking to the media after the acquisition, Hughes revealed Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell had given them permission to talk to Laine before they made the trade.
“Don was gracious enough to allow us to speak to Patrik… to just get a better understanding of his journey to where he is today, the struggles that he’s had and what he has done to put himself in a better place. We came away from that conversation very satisfied,” he said. “Everybody involved came away very comfortable with Patrik. We also spoke to him about Montreal and the pressure that comes with this market. 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.”
Conveniently ignore for the moment it also didn’t work out for Laine in Winnipeg, another Canadian market. Objectively speaking, it’s Hughes job to improve the team. That involves at least kicking tires on someone like Laine if he’s available. Having already cleared his offseason schedule, improving his team via trade was logically going to be his main focus, whether anything came of it or not. That something has goes to show there was a deal to be made, and a good one at that, looking not just at the superficial cost but trusting Hughes and his track record on the trade market too.
The Canadiens went from not having a game-breaking talent at all to drafting a potential one, who’s one, maybe two years away, to having one in hand. Laine still has to work out, but everyone knows for sure the things he can do on the ice. As a result, things are getting real in a hurry. All of a sudden, for a team that finished well out of the playoffs for a third straight season, it’s all systems go. That’s a good thing, even if the trade may end up going bad. Given the opportunity for success, Hughes just had to pull the trigger here. He should be applauded for it… and Laine should be applauded in general as rare player with star power in Montreal. The trade will have its critics, but, whether you like it or not, this is happening.
