I kind of like the idea of buying low on Laine. His current value is hard to gauge though, Columbus might actually take a lot less. But who knows what they're asking

A other player all time injured is perfect for Montreal

Wouldn't give a 7th for Laine personally

Mtl isn’t giving any assets for Laine. Laine is Mike Hoffman 2.0. There 0 chance Hugues and Gorton would entertain this.

Laine is Mike Hoffman 2.0, il a le cordon du coeur qui trempe dans marde

ouai, bien dit!

Why would Columbus want Anderson back? Massive overpayment for a guy who misses 25% of his games on a yearly basis. Laine is a massive cancer not happy no matter what team he plays for.

They wouldn't, hence the added assets for taking him on.
As for Laine, I think it's a risk worth taking for Montreal. He was playing well before the Andersson hit. Maybe the big stage of Montreal and a smart coach like St. Louis brings out the best in him. If not, we could probably still flip him for a decent return at 50% retained in a year or two.

At Laine's age, Hoffman had his first of 5 consecutive 50+ point seasons, the best period of his career. Laine is a much more talented player than Hoffman, and league scoring is up considerably now. Could easily be looking at a ppg+ player for under nine million.



Even if he makes no improvement on his performance over the past few years, he would still be a significant improvement to the Habs' top 6. And with only three years left on his contract, it's a lot less risky than acquiring a player to sign for 7-8 years.

Never.

easy pass, you can keep your 3c for that price

Problem is not is production but the way he is playing. He is not willing to do the small thing that make a team win. Mtl is building a hard working culture that he doesn’t fit at all, that the comparison with Hoffman. Both have offensive skill but both are lazy as fk.

He's looked off this year, but he's not lazy. He skates like a giraffe, which makes him look slow and like he's not putting in effort, but he does do the little things defensively (one of the few things coaching in Columbus has benefited him for).

I don't know what his headspace is like, but the thing I've noticed about him this year is he waits far too long to make his move on defenders, and turns over the puck a lot. He's not creating opportunities or getting shots like normal because he's constantly losing one-on-one battles in the offensive zone just because he makes a move too late. I think that's something a better coach could easily fix.

Not even going to hazard a guess at his value, but I think it would be dumb for Columbus to sell so low on him. He fits the timeline and fills a need if he can just...be Laine.

I really like the idea of adding Laine. I think he would thrive in MTL.

But he's a UFA after two more seasons, so the timing isn't right to be parting with significant futures to obtain him. If he came with a couple more years term I would say go for it.

Maybe an option if/when he becomes a UFA.

I would NOT offer up Adam Engstrom. I believe he has the highest ceiling of any of our prospects (at any position) and the highest probability of reaching it.

I'm not too worried about Laine being a UFA soon. If he works out, I don't see why he wouldn't want to sign here again. And if he doesn't, then we're not stuck with his contract when we want to compete.

As for Engstrom, I'm not quite so high on him (though I do think he's a good prospect), but sure, a different prospect or one of the LHDs in the lineup now could replace him.

Was it perhaps the physical or mental remnants of a previous injury? Cole Caufield spent about a quarter of the current season performing quite like your description of Laine's play. Speculation was he was obsessing too much over his defensive play &/or his shoulder was still affected by season-ending surgery from last season.

Caufield has returned to fine form over the last 10 games or so. I'm sure this is in no small way connected to Coach Martin St-Louis.

It very well could be, the concussion earlier in the year might still have lingering effects. I'm hoping he can return to form as the season wraps up, and carry it into next year.

St-Louis is IMO one of the best coaches in the league, so I'm sure Caufield's form is in big part because of him. It would be very Columbus for us to trade Laine to MTL and see him immediately score something like 40-60-100 in a healthy 82-game season.