I don't think Columbus trades Laine. We have a dire need for dynamic star-caliber forwards, no cap crunch, and his trade value has never been lower. The responsible thing is to keep him and hope for a bounceback. If not...well, the contract is one year shorter and his value is about the same.

If we did trade Laine, we'd need at least a 1st or 2nd coming back without retention. Retaining $4M+ for 3 seasons costs, at minimum, a 1st+ on its own.

I love Minnesota's potential though. JEE is so underrated, Boldy is a stud, Faber is the real deal...if Wallstedt and Rossi keep coming along, this team is on the verge of a new young core that looks really dangerous.

Yeah Tks for writing. I threw the Laine deal in there because it was interesting seeing that the Wild had some cap space for a “free winger” similar to the Bjorkstrand deal last summer.

Laine is a much better hold when you look at asset management from the perspective of him as a sole asset but honestly I think the value to the Jackets for all their other assets with addition by subtraction and finding a better top six asset than him (I would target Centre) is all around worth it for me.

And yeah, that kind of retention is bananas. But whereas the retention has its own value when you take a player’s cap hit below it’s fair market value, in Laine’a case it’s just retaining to try to get his cap hit down to what he’s worth today.

Hes a really bad player in today’s game. Way too slow. Way too disengaged. But man, that shot. If he could just back check and play positionally well enough to be a strong defender you could even live with his terrible up ice and back pressure but he can’t even defend the zone well. Painful.

Every single time you see a breakdown on Laine like this you can tell the person has not watched him play in years.

I watched a bit of this season when they were experimenting with him at centre. You don’t think the assessment fits him anymore?

Also, very curious for your thoughts on the CLB team I just constructed. CLB loses both blockbuster deals but I really like how it slots their forwards.

I'd say the biggest hurdle to his game right now is whatever personal issues he's currently dealing with and injuries. His game has significantly developed during his time in Columbus and the effort he gives at both ends of the ice is hugely improved compared to where he was in 20-21 when he joined the team. The idea that he is slow is also provably false when looking at his Edge stats. The last two season he was in the 60-80 percentile of speed bursts of all categories while only playing 55 and 56 game seasons. With a full season those numbers only go up. He is a very fast player who appears slow due to his lankiness.

I've already posted on yourColumbus ACGM, but the lines we'd have could be, with everyone healthy and no one moved (aside from Provorov and Elvis):

Johnson - Fantilli - Marchenko
Gaudreau - Jenner - Chinakhov
Texier - Sillinger - Laine
Voronkov - Kuraly - Olivier
Danforth, Nylander

Werenski - Jiricek
Mateychuk - Severson
UFA Vet/Svozil - Gudbranson
Boqvist

Tarasov
Greaves

I could see Columbus moving one of Laine, Chinakhov, Texier, or Johnson, but there's definitely no reason to go out and lose a blockbuster just to get someone in the lineup. Johnson is in rehab, Laine in the PAP, Chinakhov is injured, and Tex only just came back to North America this season. Injuries happen, too. There's really no reason to move any of them. I think this team needs time to develop, get a solid coach and GM, and move out a couple of pieces that don't want to be here/make sense to be here anyway.

Edit: Oh, and that's ignoring a top-6 pick this year.

I wasn’t even recommending losing trades. Just for the record. The default assumption on the site is that the poster is trying to convey a realistic idea that they think is valid.

In this case I was trying to convey that the team could lose a lot of talent on paper (a lot!) and probably come out ahead if the Jackets started to slot players effectively.

Tks for posting!

This is very interesting. Thanks muchly! So would you say he’s increased his defensive IQ as well then? He’s not a liability in the D zone?

He has definitely improved. You can see him working low in the corners fairly often, especially when he was being played at center, and he's often contributing on breakouts. He's far from perfect though and he's never going to be a standout for his defensive game. He's just not the defensive black hole that people try to make him out to be. He's competent and that's all he really needs to be with his offensive ability.