weastern bias
worst team in the league
It's not a reasonable bet for a player who hasn't scored 30 goals in 5 years to do so playing with a literal rookie with no NHL track record, we don't even know what Smith is at this level right now, let alone what he would look like next to a player as bad defensively as Laine, that pairing isn't doing Smith and favors adjusting to the NHL gameJust going to drop this here for you guys.
I’m not arguing he hasn’t already peaked, but IMO he seems like a reasonable bet for a 30-30 season on Smith’s wing if he’s in a good spot personally. Gosh, I think he’s going to be motivated as hell to have a big season this coming year…
Those 129 games are spread over a 3 year period where Laine was playing 17 minutes a night on one of the worst teams in the league and he was consistently outscored at even strength, Laine is a limited utility player who provides nothing but PP scoring and doesn't do it at a high level, and right now we have enough young mouths to feed on a potential PP1 unit that a 26 year old reclamation project isn't the best use of those minutes, I'd rather let Celebrini, Smith and Eklund struggle their way along that deployment along side a Toffoli/Dman combo than bring in a guy who is just gonna walk in a couple of years
Laine has had a good reason to be motivated every year, this is the NHL, everyone wants to succeed, I know he's had personal struggles as of late but my misgivings about his game long outdate those problems, he's the kind of guy I simply don't want on my hockey team, he coasts on talent and isn't actually talented enough to do so and be a positive contributor