Patrik Laine’s Columbus Blue Jackets career has come to an end. The electric scorer was traded to the Montreal Canadiens along with a 2026 second-round pick for defenseman Jordan Harris. Montreal will be absorbing his entire $8.7 million cap hit which runs through the 2025-26 season. Harris is a 24 year-old defenseman that was selected in the third-round of the 2018 draft by Montreal.
Laine, who was an elite scorer while in Winnipeg, was effective for several bad Columbus teams, but never seemed to reach the scoring heights he had with the Jets when he scored 106 goals over his first three seasons. In parts of four seasons with the Blue Jackets he scored 64 goals and added 74 assists to his scoring totals, but was limited to just 174 games played.
A broken clavicle led to him appearing in just 18 games for Columbus last season, a year in which he also participated in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance program. He completed the program recently and reportedly had requested a trade so that he could get a clean start with a new organization. General manager Don Waddell was open to honoring that request, but wasn’t going to be forced into a deal where he retained salary.
Adding a veteran scorer that can still pot 20 goals even when he’s not at his best is a sign that Montreal is looking to take the next step in their rebuild. The price they paid to help fill a hole in the top-six was the left-shot defenseman in Harris. The 24 year-old averaged 17:38 in 56 games for the Canadiens last season and chipped in 3 goals and 11 assists. Over three seasons with the Habs he appeared in 131 games and has 8 goals and 24 assists.
With a stable of young defensemen ready to challenge for a NHL spot, Montreal was comfortable in letting him go knowing that David Reinbacher and Lane Huston are waiting in the wings. Laine should boost a top-six that has a lot of youth in Juraj Slafkovsky, Cole Caufield, Kirby Dach, and Nick Suzuki, all players that are 24 or younger. Laine will likely slide into the second line with Dach and Alex Newhook while adding a pure shooter to a power play that finished 17th in the league at 17.5%.
Columbus wasn’t under a cap crunch, in fact they’re now sitting with $18 million in cap space, but it was becoming apparent that Laine wasn’t thrilled to return to the team so it’s better to deal with it now than to let it linger. They are building around their own set of young forwards in Kent Johnson, Adam Fantilli, and Cole Sillinger (a restricted free agent that they still need to sign). Recent fourth overall pick Cayden Lindstrom is also looming in the future. Could they have come to some agreement with Laine to have him start the season and hopefully boost his value? Probably, but they would also run the risk of another injury to the winger.
Other Hockey News
Speaking of trade requests, the word on the street is that Yaroslav Askarov is looking for his own fresh start in another organization. With Juuse Saros signed to play a Vasilevskiy-esque 60 games a year for the next four seasons and Scott Wedgewood backing him up for two of those years, Askarov knows his goal of being a number-one netminder in the NHL lies in a different town.
General Manager Barry Trotz has heard the reports that Askarov won’t report to Milwaukee if assigned there, but chooses to ignore them, telling reporters that his expectation is for the 22 year-old to be at camp and “compete for a job”. Is he being honest or slow-playing a potential deal? Only time will tell.
We’ll move from 22 year-old’s to 41 year-olds. Old friend Valtteri Filppula isn’t hanging up the skates just yet as he signed with Helsinki Jokerit, a second-tier team in Finland, for the upcoming season. It’s a one-year deal that also provides an ownership stake for the former Bolt. He’s returning to the team he played with as a youth, prior to joining the Detroit Red Wings, after scoring 47 goals in 145 games with Geneve Servetta of the Swiss League for the last three seasons.
Speaking of Lightning players in Europe, it looks like Erik Cernak won’t be helping Slovakia in the upcoming Olympic qualification. The team is scheduled to play in the Group D qualifier from August 29th to September 1st in Bratislava. Neither Cernak or Montreal’s Jurag Slafkovsky were released from their respective NHL teams to head overseas.
A little closer to home, the Lightning announced some details for their upcoming fantasy camp, including some of the alumni scheduled to attend. For a cool $2,500 you can join some of the former players on the ice at Amalie Arena from September 26th-29th. For that price you’ll get daily practices and games, on-ice instruction from the likes of Mathieu Garon, Vinny Lecavalier, Nikita Alexeev, Freddy Modin, and others. There are also nightly activities and you will receive your own personalized jersey.
Hockey continues to draw closer and a big sign that the season is right around the corner happened on Monday – the ice is here!
Another sign that summer is almost over is that voting is open for the Top 25 Under 25. Go forth and rank those young ones. The voting will end Friday night, so don’t waste any time.
