Confirmed with Link: Laine, 2nd 2026 to Montreal for Jordan Harris

majormajor

Registered User
Jun 23, 2018
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I'm going into this with few pre-conceived notions. About the only one is that the Laine experiment was clearly a failure. Can you explain how you know the meeting happened when it did and who was involved?

This was Porty's reporting at the time of the meeting. He had a source there, maybe Cam. I can't recall if other reporters like Scheig got in on it.

It's not the first time I remember Porty's reporting better than he does. When he tells the Bob story now, he says the club didn't want to pay him. At the time he reported that they tried and Bob wouldn't talk to them, it was all about his feeling of being disrespected in the Caps series.

Do you agree with Porty's assessment that Jarmo made desperate deals trying to save his job?

Not until pretty recently.

I think Jarmo had some of the best job security in the league in 2019-2022. He wasn't blamed for any of the high profile guys leaving and had a chance to patiently chart a whole rebuild.

He did a bad job before he got into desperate mode.

I put as much blame on Jarmo for Laine's struggles.

Jarmo's problem was he liked making big splashy deals to see his name in print when a smaller, safer (ie, boring) deal would have been a better course of action for the team.

Jarmo's other problem was not being on the same page as his coaching staff. Bringing in players that didn't play the kind of game the coach was demanding.

His third problem was he didn't value culture. In fact, he, himself, often made it worse. So we got all the drama that created a toxic stew. Just conjecture, but I would bet that didn't bring out the best in Laine and fed into his insecurities.

I'll modify this a bit to say that Jarmo brought in a lot of guys that were just difficult to coach in general. It wasn't the fit with a particular coach that was an issue, every coach in the league is going to want guys who have a consistent drive, can forecheck, and not turnover the puck too much. Moody players that play more limited games are not some particular coach's type.
 

NotCommitted

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Jul 4, 2013
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Porty has been reporting Laine is about to get traded for the whole time he was here. I never felt his reporting around Laine was particularly unbiased or accurate, unless they've been trying to trade him for 3 years. I wouldn't expect it got better now that he got traded, personally I put about as much stock on his reporting around Laine as the fluff pieces in MTL media. Some interesting tidbits here and there but it's all spun into PR / what the fans want to hear. Understandably Columbus just got better through addition by substraction while Montreal got a great player for practically free.
 

majormajor

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Jun 23, 2018
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You're making a solid point but let's not forget Jarmo could have traded Laine in the summer of 2022 or sign him to a shorter deal than 4 years which would have been a more tradeable contract. I was in the small minority then that would have preferred either option over his current deal but Jarmo was clearly less skeptical about Laine's ability to fit in. So his initial decision to acquire Laine might have been the best possible move but the next one arguably wasn't, and it's a part of why it all ultimately "didn't work out" for CBJ.

I don't know if that's what any of this really hinges on. Laine missed half his games and had a mental breakdown, and we still were able to trade him without retention. So if his contract was expiring instead of the extra two years it wouldn't have made a huge difference.

Porty has been reporting Laine is about to get traded for the whole time he was here. I never felt his reporting around Laine was particularly unbiased or accurate, unless they've been trying to trade him for 3 years. I wouldn't expect it got better now that he got traded, personally I put about as much stock on his reporting around Laine as the fluff pieces in MTL media. Some interesting tidbits here and there but it's all spun into PR / what the fans want to hear. Understandably Columbus just got better through addition by substraction while Montreal got a great player for practically free.

When Porty was asked his opinion on which direction the club should take, he said they should trade Laine. That came up a lot that way. He did not say they were about to trade him.

And I think he was right that they should have traded him earlier.
 
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Xoggz22

Registered User
Mar 4, 2002
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Columbus, Ohio
Harris is a solid pickup. He should make the team better, though he won't be dominant. He can be bottom pair, still develop until we know what players like Svozil, Mateychuk, Richard, Knazko look like as they develop. He can be a future 7th and could pinch into the second pair when Provorov is traded.

Sounds like he's a great guy in the room, driven to succeed and active in the community. I like that he comes in to a perfect situation for him.
 

NotCommitted

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Jul 4, 2013
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When Porty was asked his opinion on which direction the club should take, he said they should trade Laine. That came up a lot that way. He did not say they were about to trade him.

And I think he was right that they should have traded him earlier.

I seem to remember him putting it out there as some kind of 'rumor' or 'speculation' they might be trading him at least couple different occasions quite far apart, which always sounded more like what he'd wish would happen instead of what was actually in the cards. But honestly I don't follow hockey writers or twitter etc. much at all, I think it was probably tweets that were posted here or second hand information of what was said in a podcast or something.

In hindsight he was absolutely right but when he was signed Laine seemed happy to be here and a trade after 22-23 would've been a bit weird. So not extending and doing something at the TDL 21-22 would've probably been the way to go, but then again that team was somewhat in the hunt for a playoff spot back then so... maybe after 22-23 season, he would've had decent value coming from two good, albeit injury riddled seasons.
 

tunnelvision

Registered User
Jul 31, 2021
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I don't know if that's what any of this really hinges on. Laine missed half his games and had a mental breakdown, and we still were able to trade him without retention. So if his contract was expiring instead of the extra two years it wouldn't have made a huge difference.
I don't believe you really know how much of a difference a shorter deal with more favorable NTC conditions could've had for some teams interested in trading for Laine in 2022 or 2023. The ultimate return for PLD could have been much more valuable than what now we ended up receiving.

The bottom line is that Jarmo could have traded Laine before re-signing him, and possibly even after re-signing him. A plenty of time and opportunities to move him for something that would have made us think "hey look, PLD trade worked out nicely for us after all", but that didn't happen and most likely never will.
 

cbjthrowaway

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Jul 4, 2020
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Porty has been reporting Laine is about to get traded for the whole time he was here. I never felt his reporting around Laine was particularly unbiased or accurate, unless they've been trying to trade him for 3 years.
where portzline starts editorializing is where he connects dots between the meeting and the trades of jones/atkinson.

after losing PLD, bread, bobrovsky, torts and foligno – and with, at the time, one of the league's worst pipelines – it was clear that they were going to blow things up. moving those guys made sense at the time for a rebuilding team, regardless of their thoughts about laine. that's even with the atkinson deal being framed as a "hockey trade" when the clear value in that deal came from voracek's contract having less term.

given how frequently Laine's name came up in trade rumors over the last three years, I don't doubt that the FO was looking to move him. which is where portzline's assertion falls apart for me. yes, they moved jones and atkinson, but they were clearly not committed to keeping laine long-term, either. even his extension was designed to give them flexibility.
 

cbjthrowaway

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Jul 4, 2020
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The bottom line is that Jarmo could have traded Laine before re-signing him, and possibly even after re-signing him.
I don't disagree with your point about contract term, but the timeline here is important too:
  1. he accepted his QO going into 21-22 after the disastrous stretch in 20-21
  2. doing so left only one 'buffer year' between the QO and hitting UFA
  3. he had a big 21-22 season
in hindsight, the big unforced error by jarmo was holding laine through the 21-22 deadline, when he was a pending RFA and playing quite well. valuing him as a premium rental rather than a potential long-term asset would have still yielded a nice return.

that summer, he was an RFA with one year until UFA status. but that put the jackets in a bind. forget the QO – he could have signed a one-year offer-sheet. if you match an offer sheet on a player, you can't trade them for a year, and he was a year away from UFA. the offer sheet comp would've been a late 1st + 2nd + 3rd, I think.

it's easy to say this in hindsight, but the best time to trade him would've probably been the 21-22 deadline, even if it meant valuing him on the market as a one-year rental due to the offer sheet threat described above.

that said, this was also during larsen's first year, where the team showed signs of life (especially offensively) and laine looked like a potential core piece (was over a point-per-game at the trade deadline). so at the time, it probably made sense to value him higher than the offers they ended up getting.
 

VT

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Jan 24, 2021
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Holy Jesus. :huh:

  • "I watched Laine in 2016 lead that World Junior team in Finnish soil to a gold medal. All the greats of finnish hockey were there, all calling and expecting a gold medal and he delivered it, boy did he deliver it. Laine has never had any issue dealing with pressure, he will not have any issues dealing with pressure. "
  • "The Columbus blue jackets were a disaster when he was there, a disaster, a total disaster. Its a miracle anybody performed at all on that team. We should be celebrating Patrik Laine for standing up against the mess that was going on in Columbus, we should be celebrating Patrik Laine."
  • "I am sick and tired hearing about you can't win with Patrik Laine. You know who you can't win with? The Columbus Blue jackets! And the mess of a management and ownership they have had for years. Players should be going, I think Patrik Laine is right, I can't win in Columbus, period. It was a joke."
  • "If Patrik Laine truly was a “locker room cancer” the #Canadiens would not have traded for him!"

But it was dump, but speaks to the quality of past GMs etc, although I wonder if Button could have said that to the Columbus fans in their eyes. It's time to show that Columbus can be one of the best franchises.

  • "What is Columbus in this league? A game on the schedule. That is all they had ever been"

 

CBJWerenski8

Rest in Peace Johnny
Jun 13, 2009
43,819
26,869
Holy Jesus.

  • "I watched Laine in 2016 lead that World Junior team in Finnish soil to a gold medal. All the greats of finnish hockey were there, all calling and expecting a gold medal and he delivered it, boy did he deliver it. Laine has never had any issue dealing with pressure, he will not have any issues dealing with pressure. "
  • "The Columbus blue jackets were a disaster when he was there, a disaster, a total disaster. Its a miracle anybody performed at all on that team. We should be celebrating Patrik Laine for standing up against the mess that was going on in Columbus, we should be celebrating Patrik Laine."
  • "I am sick and tired hearing about you can't win with Patrik Laine. You know who you can't win with? The Columbus Blue jackets! And the mess of a management and ownership they have had for years. Players should be going, I think Patrik Laine is right, I can't win in Columbus, period. It was a joke."
  • "If Patrik Laine truly was a “locker room cancer” the #Canadiens would not have traded for him!"

But it was dump, but speaks to the quality of past GMs etc, although I wonder if Button could have said that to the Columbus fans in their eyes. It's time to show that Columbus can be one of the best franchises.

  • "What is Columbus in this league? A game on the schedule. That is all they had ever been"

Buttons criticism of the team isn’t wrong but to completely absolve Laine of any problems isn’t right. Button has always been a big Laine guy, which is fine, but he’s had his own share of problems with two teams now. Sometimes it’s a you problem.
 

VT

Registered User
Jan 24, 2021
7,760
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Slovakia
Buttons criticism of the team isn’t wrong but to completely absolve Laine of any problems isn’t right. Button has always been a big Laine guy, which is fine, but he’s had his own share of problems with two teams now. Sometimes it’s a you problem.
Maybe he is a Laine's fan, but he has insides, so as for whether Laine was cancer or not, I would believe him. But I put this article because of the words about the quality of GMs etc. I had never thought it was so bad. I defended Jarmo but it seems in vain.

Btw, what Perreault said:
 
Last edited:

Viqsi

"that chick from Ohio"
Oct 5, 2007
55,982
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Holy Jesus. :huh:

  • "I watched Laine in 2016 lead that World Junior team in Finnish soil to a gold medal. All the greats of finnish hockey were there, all calling and expecting a gold medal and he delivered it, boy did he deliver it. Laine has never had any issue dealing with pressure, he will not have any issues dealing with pressure. "
  • "The Columbus blue jackets were a disaster when he was there, a disaster, a total disaster. Its a miracle anybody performed at all on that team. We should be celebrating Patrik Laine for standing up against the mess that was going on in Columbus, we should be celebrating Patrik Laine."
  • "I am sick and tired hearing about you can't win with Patrik Laine. You know who you can't win with? The Columbus Blue jackets! And the mess of a management and ownership they have had for years. Players should be going, I think Patrik Laine is right, I can't win in Columbus, period. It was a joke."
  • "If Patrik Laine truly was a “locker room cancer” the #Canadiens would not have traded for him!"

But it was dump, but speaks to the quality of past GMs etc, although I wonder if Button could have said that to the Columbus fans in their eyes. It's time to show that Columbus can be one of the best franchises.

  • "What is Columbus in this league? A game on the schedule. That is all they had ever been"

That's nice. Button can go f*** himself. Him and anyone who buys the clickbait hot-take garbage he's selling.
 

VT

Registered User
Jan 24, 2021
7,760
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Slovakia
That's nice. Button can go f*** himself. Him and anyone who buys the clickbait hot-take garbage he's selling.
The fact that there was a mess was said by others, personally, I did not believe that so much. But minimum the last words were too much. He is a public figure, he must control what he says in the media.
 
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