I will never understand why people try to jump through such hoops to try to hide the fact that the guy who threatened a coach before he was drafted, was a locker room cancer for the Jets, and was healthy scratched by the Blue Jackets, was, is, and continue to be a malcontent. Is it because people thought he was gonna be really good once? 9 years into his career, and he's still bleeding scoring chances against 5v5 like almost no other player in the league, and for all intents and purposes a one-trick pony you try to hide unless it's time to push him out on the PP.
You can blame the Jets all you like. The Jets didn't completely implode post Maurice. They are a team without the elite talent to be among the elite teams. They were a really good team in 2018, lost their talent because of injuries (Byfuglien, who, which you seem to try
so hard to avoid saying retired following the 2019 season after he got injured), other interests (Trouba), and cap casualties. After that, they were going nowhere. After a few years of going nowhere, Maurice resigned half a year before his contract was due to expire. Here is his actual explanation for why he resigned:
Standing in front of a microphone ahead of his first game against the Winnipeg Jets, there were several soundbites that stood out that were more about sentimentality for time spent in a place that left an impression on both Paul Maurice and his entire family.
www.sportsnet.ca
Shockingly, it says nothing about a toxic locker room, and everything about every coach having a shelf life, and after 7 years as the Jets coach, it was just time to go. Same with Wheeler. It was time for another voice in the room.
This wasn't the sudden exodus of players you are pretending like it was. Byfuglien retired from hockey 2.5 years before Maurice resigned as a coach.
Good for Maurice on going to a team with more talent and having the effect he did early on with the Jets. No hard feelings about Maurice. He deserves his success. Every coach has a shelf life, and he stayed with the Jets much longer than does the average coach. IIRC, he resigned from the Jets as the longest or 2nd longest tenured coach in the league at the time.
Whatever problems the locker room had doesn't, of course, mean that Laine isn't a diva who is a problem everywhere he goes. The malcontent has imploded his own career. No great loss.
6.63 is considerably closer to where he has been through his career. He averaged in the high 7s through his first 5 seasons. I sincerely doubt that he has the high end talent on his own to maintain an on-ice sh% anywhere near 10, and expect it to drop down in the 8s again. 245th among forwards is also well into the group of 8th forward (7*32=224), and closer to 9th. He has been producing solidly like a 3rd liner. Sure, that's a middle 6er. Or a bottom 6er.
But yeah, he's probably a 3rd liner. He's Mason Appleton. Nothing wrong with being Mason Appleton. The Jets have their own Mason Appleton, and he's been on their 3rd line for years. It's also likely time for the Rangers to cash in on him before teams decide that he's probably not going to turn into a good pick at #2 overall, and is likely to go through his career being Mason Appleton.