I hear rumors are he may go to Montreal. What are everyone's thoughts on the Blues chiming in? He's only 26. Could be an albatross with that contract but idk…
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/eight-potential-trade-destinations-for-blue-jackets-sniper-patrik-laine/
by stltk65
15 Comments
Hes a nut. Would prefer to not get rid of one, and put another in the locker room
8.7m a year… but he would be off the books after next year. Could help solidify the middle 6
No thank you, not for the price. Has burned out other places for being more go used on video gaming than hockey. Not sure if that is connected to what his recent issue with the player assistance program was but at the salary it’s a pass.
Nah
Laine is a complimentary scoring piece in the top six.
The Blues have that in a younger and cheaper package with Kyrou.
What the Blues lack are the Schenn/Perron/ROR (circa 2015-20). The guys that play hard in every aspect. Win battles. Create headaches for the opposition. Until we have a couple guys like that, the Laine’s and Marners of the world are just adding more extremely skilled offense without the other pieces extremely skilled offensive players need to thrive. Tarasenko was in that boat as well. For guys to score like that they need to find open ice they need to be moving a step ahead of the or in the transition game. And guys that excel at that can’t also be deep in their own blue zone backchecking hard, or constantly engaged in heavy battles along the boards in the O Zone. Which is why they often get labeled as lazy or not playing hard enough.
They also need to know there is a D corps behind them that’s going to bail them out on occasion. Petro, JBo, Gunny, and Colt did that.
If we had actually landed Tkachuk or and we still Petro. You would see Kyrou look like a consistent 100pt threat without nearly as much of the “lazy” talk.
Long story short. It’s hard to have more than one excellent complimentary offensive weapon without having the other guys.
He’s going to make an excellent addition to a team like NYR or Colorado or even back in Winnipeg. Teams that most or all of the other pieces (assuming they can afford him).
No. God no. Why? No, God no.
He’s worth $4-5 million/year when healthy. On a good team with a middling power play, he could push them over the hump, but he’s not the superstar he was promoted as when he was a rookie. If people have realistic expectations of him he could really be an asset. If he’s asked to carry a lousy team on his back and turn them into a Cup favorite, they’re wasting their time and probably going to make Laine play worse. We’ve got Snuggerud’s one-timer coming soon. I wouldn’t clog up the lineup with too many one-dimensional one-timer specialists knowing that we’ve likely got a prospect with a one-timer in the pipes already.
He’s like a younger Mike Hoffman. Great shot and good on the power play but a head case off the ice and vastly overpaid
No thanks
Liane? Sure, I can learn to like this mysterious player.
Laine? Hell no. Too enigmatic.
A couple of years ago, sure. But we don’t have the pieces to make a run and I would rather give the minutes and experience to home grown talent.
Nah I’m good
This is not what we need. What salary cap money we got in the increase needs to be spent wisely since we have too many bad NTCs. Neighbours is due a raise so some of that cash is spoken for.
Everyone is going to complain about the contract, but there’s only 2 years, he’s a former 40 goal scorer, he’s only 26, and the Blues aren’t going to be great for those 2 remaining years anyway. Before last season, he was nearly a point per game player on the Columbus freaking Blue Jackets. If he comes to St. Louis and fills the net with goals, great. Extend him and you’ve got a 28 year old 40 goal scorer under contract right as the Blues window hopefully begins to crack open again. If he sucks, you weren’t going to make any noise for those 2 years anyway, and you can walk away pretty easily. He’s way less of a risk than Vrana and Kapenen were with a much higher ceiling. For the right price, he’s worth it. I feel like a contending team like Carolina is going to drive up the price beyond what the Blues would be willing to pay. As nice as it would be to have additional scoring, there are other areas of the roster/prospect pipeline that are more pressing.
For Krug maybe
Laine scores against the Blues so much we’d see a record in own-goals for a season.