So you wanna trade one struggling player for another but you want to take on the guy with the bigger cap hit and the longer term. Why?? No, just no!

I'm taking the gamble that Laine can still be a game changing talent in the right environment. Particularly an environment that has 2 elite playmaking C's. It's a risk but if it pays off it's a move that bumps us up a notch.

I'd definitely gamble on someone like Laine still, specially a team that has high upside this season (VAN) but feel like CBJ would want picks or a better asset.

end of the day he's still only 25 and the skill is there.

He's on his second team and has been in the dog house in both places with multiple coaches. When people show you who they are believe them. This move would be a massive mistake imo and one the Canucks don't need to make at this point in the rebuild.

Maybe but Kuzmenko is no slouch either and Laine and CBJ is a disgruntled situation. CBJ also has a few young Russians that aren't sure about being there. Kuzmenko has a very positive infectious attitude that might help.

Laine is also on a pretty big ticket and with how everything has gone I think that hurts his value.

This trade doesn’t make sense.
Both teams decline.

In WPG, he was immature and getting bullied. In CBJ under Torts, he was being forced to play defense, sometimes you just have to let offensive players be offensive players. Worth noting that Torts wasn't just trying to get Laine to be defensively responsible, he was trying to turn him into a two-way force which is a pretty tall ask of a 1-D offensive forward. This year, Laine was committed to trying to improve his value to the team by trying to play C which of course, comes with defensive responsibilities as well, not sure if that experiment ended when he got injured or before that. I'm not sure what Laine is doing wrong now, the coach might just be trying to motivate him to get better, but he's probably going the wrong way about it by benching/healthy scratching Laine since that's not really something he responds well to meaning he doesn't really learn anything from that. That aside, Laine is a proven producer with a career average of 0.81 PPG, only posting lower than that in 3-years: his 3rd year (0.61), the year he was traded to CBJ (0.52), and in his 8th season this year (0.38). Another area of concern is that he does seem to be injury-prone with 2018-19 being the last season that he played a full 82-season (he was healthy for the entire shortened season).

If the Canucks have a need for a sniper like Laine, then they just need to know who they are getting, how to deal with him, and most importantly know how to utilize him. I think it's too early for them to be making moves like this though. They need to see how they measure up against other teams in the post-season and what the team is lacking in terms of playoff hockey.

Not sure I understand the advantage?

Change of scenery for both guys.

The Canucks don't need a sniper as they lead the league with 91 goals... 11 more then the next highest team along with having the 2nd, 3rd, and 7th highest scoring players and the league leader in goals in Boeser.

Tocchet also isn't going to put up with players that don't play a 200 foot game. It's why Kuzmenko is getting healthy scratched so again I ask why would the Canucks bring on a player who has more term for more money who does the same thing as the player you are currently benching?

If Tocchet isn't going to tolerate him, then it makes no sense to add him, although I don't know that Laine is getting benched for doing the basics in terms of a 200ft-game. He might have changed in that regard, would need to ask a Blue Jackets fan.

As for needing a sniper, I just meant in general if that becomes a need. It's worth noting that Laine might not mesh well on PP1, he usually plays the same side as Pettersson does, maybe he would take Boeser's spot but that likely throws him off his game. Their powerplay is doing great right, now and if it stays like that even if they need some help in the scoring department, they would be better served getting someone who would play on the second PP unit.

He's getting benched because he almost certainly came back to soon from a massive concussion and he looks lost out there and is making extremely elementary mistakes that are not like him. He scored a goal last night and was still easily the worst player on the team. He is visibly not right right now.

Also, he needs to be in the left circle on the PP to unleash his greatest weapon (something the Jackets refuse to do), so he works best with a right-shot QB. Vancouver has Hughes, a lefty. Don't see the fit.

No chance they trade him at the absolute nadir of his value.

Sounds like Laine better start reviewing some Paul Kariya game tape. Just an unfortunate situation in CLB.

Thought Laine plays on the right on the PP, I remember seeing him unleash those one-timers from that side in highlights in the past at least.

We're cursed. That's all you can say.

They keep sticking him on the left. Not that our PP has any sense of coherence or structure, anyway. League worst over a five year period no matter who the head or PP coach are, and then they go in and hire Recchi who had dreadful PP coaching numbers in NJ as well.