For a couple years now I've thought Laine would be a perfect fit in Ottawa. Most polarizing player in the league though - I'm sure you'll get tons of comments arguing that you overpaid and underpaid lol.

Agreed - he would be a great fit from a skills perspective in Ottawa. The guy is a bit of a trainwreck, but if he played to his potential in a top 6 role in Ottawa....wow. In terms of overpay/underpay, I think offering the equivalent of the offer sheet compensation is incredibly reasonable.

For AGM sake, why not? The team looks good, and if they could get a goalie, perhaps the kids take a few steps forwards, they’d be a playoff team.

But, as you said, highly unlikely.

That’s an easy no from San Jose. Not retaining all that money on Karlsson when he was back this season before his injury. Two low level prospects aren’t going to do it. And there’s no 1st rounder involved at all? Easy no.

No team in the cap era is retaining 35mil. We'd be flat out stupid to trade Karlsson now that he's actually playing good. Super easy pass.

Instead of a 7m Karlsson and 7.5m Laine....wouldn't the Sens by infinitely better off spending 14.5m in UFA,s keeping former first rounder Thomson, Boucher and a first, two seconds and two thirds.

So many teams near the cap, Sens should have no trouble getting UFAs....and quality guys into their lineup.

Good point. I would counter that Ottawa fans were pretty disappointed in the compensation we received for Karlsson in the first trade that included a low level prospect named Josh Norris. It turned out pretty good. And given Karlsson's injury history now, I don't think there would be too many teams offering up two first round prospects and then another 1st round pick. Agree to disagree. I hope he continues to play well in SJ. We miss him in Ottawa.

Honest? I'd be fine with that for CBJ.

I've been hesitant of a Laine extension not necessarily for any quality reason, but more where this team is in its rebuild. Tough to commit, what, $8M+ to a guy who is going to spend two years playing alongside a bunch of 19 and 20 year olds figuring their game out.

His career has taught us he isn't much of a play-driver, but the man can finish. Said it before, I'll say it again, outside of a 25 or so game stretch last year with CBJ where, you know, the entire team was awful, he's basically been a PPG guy on the team. And that is with All-NHL caliber guys like Boone Jenner and Jack Roslovic as his center.

If Ottawa was located in a low-tax, sunshine destination, I'd agree with you on the UFAs. Have a listen to Bobby Ryan and Mark Methot when they talk about Ottawa as a destination. While they both loved playing here and really like the city, it most definitely is not on many players' radars as a free agent destination. Realistically if we're going to get players with term, it'll likely be via a trade and will require some loss of picks or prospects.

You can easily make the counter argument that both those 1st round prospects should have been picked anywhere near where they were selected. I couldn’t care less if they didn’t like the return, doesn’t mean the sharks should take less back for him. And Norris wasn’t a low level prospect and he’s pricing that now.

cbj pass.

Again, great points and I can appreciate where you're coming from. Let me clarify about Norris. Perhaps SJ fans saw him as a high quality prospect, but that certainly wasn't the feeling in Ottawa. For a player of Karlsson's stature at the time, we expected Meier or Lebanc to be in the package back. Lassi Thomson will be a solid NHLer and coincidentally was drafted 19th overall just like Norris. Jury is out on Boucher for sure. As I said in my intro, this is the most unlikely of scenarios anyway. Best of luck to the Sharks for the final half of the season. I would love to see Karlsson healthy and making a playoff run with SJ.

Boucher shouldn’t have been anywhere near 10th overall, possibly not even a 1st rounder. I know for certain the sharks would love to have traded labanc instead of Norris at this point.

Price for Laine is a first, young player, and A level prospect. Switch the first to top 5 protected 2023 since the jackets will likely have two top 10 picks this year and maybe another first from a domi trade. If we are trading a centerpiece of our rebuild we will need a top prospect back.

That might be what Columbus wants, but the reality is that Laine might opt for a 1 year deal and then walk to free agency. I don’t envy their position. I would assume any Laine trade would come with him signing an extension.

A Laine trade with extension would get a bigger return than this. I think Columbus extends him as he is playing great hockey this and seems to enjoy Columbus. If he is only willing to sign a 1 year deal then he will be dealt at the draft (likely for a bigger return than this) or at the TDL for a similar return as what you have proposed. There aren’t too many elite goal scorers like Laine who are this young and available.