I like this, I floated a Laine for Ekblad trade a few weeks ago.
https://www.capfriendly.com/armchair-gm/team/1349424

Makes a lot of sense. Stud RHD to play with JoMo. Signed for 6 years!

Don’t think it’s that. He will obviously be down if he only scores 12 goals in 70 games (save 10 games of November). He is used to having wayyy more. He was so happy in November. He just wasn’t happy about his season and neither would you or I if we were in his spot. He has openly spoke good about WPG and is involved in the community quite a bit. In his most recent comments he just sounds like a 21 yr old guy who is frustrated because he knows nothing about his future. And this is Patrik laine here, who we all know loves to make headlines

Almost all fans these days - Star Young player hasn't signed and we are a month from training camp, it'll cost 18,000,000 to get him signed for one year and he definitely wants to go somewhere else.

I’ve been watching him live since he started playing for the jets. He looks very lazy out on the ice and a lot of the time he just floats around and waits to get a pass. He looks so out of it on the ice some times like he is invisible. He’s got a good shot but that’s about it from why I’ve seen and he has little hustle. I know he can be the best player on the ice and skate through an entire team but it’s very rare of him to do it.This isn’t me being biased, it’s what I see when I watch him play.

The way I see it is different prospective from both camps. With Laine, it is simple. I want fair market value. To me that is $10+ M/season at whatever term. For management, they have to be a little weary after Laine struggled to score regularly last season. Had Laine’s second year (44g) been the final year of his ELC, I think management would have been surprisingly pleased, and be happy to get a deal done.

As it stands now, Cheveldayoff must be stretching his head, figuring out how much the Jets can afford pay Laine in term and in dollars. Are we going to get the Laine who scored 44g and can excel that mark or the Laine who scored 30 and was a minus 24?. It seems to me that stat is the glaring one.

If you pay a guy $8, $9 or $10 M, it won’t matter how many goals that person scores if the team gives up more goals when he is on the ice. It is unfair to single out Laine as the sole reason the Jets allowed 26 more goals that previous season. The bottom line Winnipeg needs to do a better job without the puck and in goal. Hellebuyck was .913, 2.90 last from .924 and 2.36 the previous year.

The Jets are in the envious position of being tempted to move a stud like Laine in an attempt to strengthen the club’s defensive side without it hurting them offensively (deep forwards).