{"id":456156,"date":"2026-02-12T23:16:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T23:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/456156\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T23:16:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T23:16:44","slug":"canadiens-likely-to-trade-patrik-laine-after-olympics-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/456156\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadiens Likely To Trade Patrik Laine After Olympics \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the past few weeks, winger Patrik Laine<\/a> has been a full participant at most Montreal Canadiens practices as he works his way back from core muscle surgery. However, assuming he\u2019s medically cleared to play after the Olympics, there\u2019s little expectation that it\u2019ll be with the Canadiens.<\/p>\n

In a recent article<\/a>, Eric Engels of Sportsnet strongly implied Laine wouldn\u2019t play for Montreal again this season, writing, \u201cIf the 27-year-old Finn sees any post-Olympics action, we expect it to be for someone other than the Canadiens.\u201d That suggests that Montreal will quickly begin trade negotiations regarding Laine, if they haven\u2019t already.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the major hangup in any Laine trade is his bloated salary. Laine\u2019s cap hit sits at $8.7MM through the end of the season, and he\u2019s earning a $9.1MM salary. Although the cap hit has received much scrutiny, Laine was coming off a 26-goal, 56-point performance in 56 games for the Columbus Blue Jackets, was only 23 years old at the time, and had already scored 250 points in 306 games for the Winnipeg Jets.<\/p>\n

Still, there\u2019s no question he hasn\u2019t lived up to that contract. He had a decent follow-up performance with the Blue Jackets, but injuries have derailed him since. Since the start of the 2023-24 season, Laine has played in only 75 games, which is 33.9% of the total possible contests.<\/p>\n

He was a quality secondary scorer for the Canadiens last season, registering 20 goals and 33 points in 52 games. 15 of his goals were scored on power plays, making him less effective at even-strength. This season, due to the core muscle surgery, Laine has tallied only one assist in five games.<\/p>\n

As Engels points out, Montreal would undoubtedly have to eat some of Laine\u2019s remaining salary, and may even need to attach an additional sweetener. According to Engels, that\u2019s not something the Canadiens are keen to do.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the Canadiens won\u2019t have much wiggle room until Laine is entirely off the roster come July 1st. Given the organization\u2019s need for cap space, it would make little sense to swap Laine for another bad contract, especially one signed beyond this season. Despite his lack of availability over the past few years and his subpar play at even strength, there are a few teams with ample cap space to take a flyer on Laine down the stretch.<\/p>\n

As it stands, the Detroit Red Wings, Seattle Kraken, New York Islanders, and Los Angeles Kings are all teams battling for a playoff spot, averaging below three goals per game. The Red Wings and Kraken might be less interested in a player like Laine, given that their power plays are among the league\u2019s best. Furthermore, the Kings are counting on\u00a0Artemi Panarin<\/a> to offset the offensive shortcomings, whom they acquired before the Olympic break.<\/p>\n

That leaves the Islanders, who are currently third in the Metropolitan Division, 24th in GF\/G, and 30th in power-play percentage. Would the Canadiens be interested in a different expiring asset, like Jean-Gabriel Pageau<\/a>, to deepen their center depth? Acquiring a secondary scorer like Pageau may at least make it more palatable for Montreal to eat salary and attach a draft pick to Laine. New York has some flexibility with their salary cap, so the Canadiens may only need to eat a few million dollars, giving them most of what they are looking for.<\/p>\n

Still, the immediate question that comes to mind is Laine\u2019s perceived fit in Patrick Roy<\/a>\u2018s scheme. Contextualized by his public battles with Anthony Duclair<\/a> over the past few years, there is a zero-tolerance policy in New York for taking a shift off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the past few weeks, winger Patrik Laine has been a full participant at most Montreal Canadiens practices…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5103],"tags":[265,5,264,21,5147,4,640],"class_list":{"0":"post-456156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-canadiens","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-montreal","11":"tag-montreal-canadiens","12":"tag-montrealcanadiens","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-patrik-laine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116060211331094296","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}