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

[NotWendell]

Yeah tbh sounds like Canadian hockey media with new toy syndrome. Just wait for the stories if they ever do a 180

Not if, when.

 

[The Last Red]

The Habs were apparently the only team willing to take Laine without retention by CBJ, hence the “meh” return for him. Waddell did as well as can be expected here.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

Just realized Vincent went to Habs AHL, so they had basically witness information of what happened in that room

If they even asked him. We’ve seen the type of due diligence NHL teams are capable of.

 

[Bobby Holik agent]

Yeah some Montreal media are valuing Harris like crap right now.
Harris is a low salary cap 19minutes ice time guys in the NHL at 24.
His worth is higher than a 2nd round pick in 2 years. There's like 7 teams in the NHL that would do this deal right away.
2nd round pick alone dosen't give you that except on draft day when you're falling in love with a prospect hard.

 

[The Last Red]

If they even asked him. We’ve seen the type of due diligence NHL teams are capable of.

I’m sure that Boston College law grad. Kent Hughes did some due diligence.

 

[VT]

If they even asked him. We’ve seen the type of due diligence NHL teams are capable of.

Do you really think Hughes didn't vet a player like Laine, who has a reputation for being a cancer on the team?

 

[End of Line]

Worth the listen

Porty got the year wrong, but around 4:45 in the video it gets interesting

 

[VT]

Stojí za vypočutie

Porty si pomýlil rok, ale okolo 4:45 vo videu to začína byť zaujímavé

Okay, now look at the facts:

Jones wanted to play in a big market. Anyway, we can be glad he left, seeing his play in Chicago.

Everyone saw the reason for the Atkinson trade, we needed a playmaker and Cam wasn't that player for a long time, besides he had a long contract, btw look at his play in Philly. He seems to have a good relationship with Laine as well.

Gus wasn't traded until two years after the events and he played great on the line with .. Laine in the 2021/22 season.

Werenski told Finnish reporters that Patrik is a top NHL player when healthy and hopes to return for this year's World Championships in the Czech Republic. Although he didn't have to say that. And he seems to have a good relationship with him as well.

For Foligno, in addition to Nick's expiring contract, he was actually just loaned to Toronto. We're past the first round.

And if there was a problem with Laine in future seasons, one of the reporters would surely find out.

Some player would have told him. And if he was worried during the Jarmo time, he wouldn't have had a problem after he left.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

I will say we will not know all the details today or tomorrow, but Laine is an open book. I’m sure we’ll hear more when their camp opens and especially when he makes his return to Columbus.

The story isn’t over yet

 

[cbjthrowaway]

having now listened to the full portzline clip… there's some wild editorializing going on here.

first, bishop says the thing about how the guys they traded "could've done something special" and then portzline talks about how the premise of the meeting was "how do we make this work"

i think the actual question they were evaluating is different than what they asked those guys – they were trying to see if that group could work, and it was clear at the time (and in hindsight) that the answer was no.

• panarin and bob were irreplaceable stars who were long gone
• key veteran leaders (foligno, savard) and supporting pieces (anderson) had just been traded
• the big, mean 1C who was the lynchpin of their whole roster build (dubois) had just forced his way out of town
• torts, the coach who made the whole thing work, was also gone

jones + atkinson were basically saying "get rid of the star you just traded for and build around us" – but atkinson's game cratered without panarin, and jones wasn't willing to even talk about a long-term deal with the jackets.

there is no way that those guys got moved because they told jarmo to get rid of laine, as portzline surmises. they got moved because 1) cam was clearly not the same player anymore and 2) the roster still wouldn't be good had jones stayed, but would've been a disaster had they lost him for nothing.

they had to do a tear-down. laine stayed for the same reason werenski did – because they were impact players in their early-20s who could've become building blocks. one did, one didn't.

laine was apparently never a fit in the room, and the laine experiment didn't work out, but portzline's framing of this is journalistic malpractice.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

Do you really think Hughes didn't vet a player like Laine, who has a reputation for being a cancer on the team?

When teams don’t properly vet Mike Babcock nothing surprises me.

 

[JacketsDavid]

Worth the listen

Porty got the year wrong, but around 4:45 in the video it gets interesting

Wow that is "chilling" where the players said get rid of Elvis and Laine and instead they get rid of the leadership team who said that.

 

[LoneFunyan]

1. Saying I'm happy with the trade is ridiculous. But it had to happen; as usual we had a gun to our heads and receiving anything less than a kill shot is a welcome outcome. We could very well be looking at "future considerations" as the return here. Honestly, had we not tossed the 2nd in, we likely would be.

2. While we may view Harris as a random, journeyman defenseman, reading so many positive character comments, I think we should view him as having more value to this team, at this moment, than maybe his on ice production would warrant. Sounds like a guy you can consider to be part of a future leadership core. It sounds like you could do way worse than Harris if your goal is to build a new culture in an org. Wouldn't surprise me if this was a factor in how GMDW valued him.

3. We've just spent 2 season hemorrhaging cash and gotten nowhere - I absolutely can not blame McConnell if he said "checkbook's closed for a while - no retention on trades, no buy outs, no 3rd party cap management trades to help teams. We sign our own players to contracts, make roughly even money trades and that's going to be it for a while." Especially given that we have no reasonable shot at competing this year. I'll be a little surprised if we do anything next off-season - I think the freeze may be in until maybe 2026 TDL.

4. Said it when it happened, I'll say it again: if you had a plan to take the knees out from under a team, you couldn't do much better than what PLD did and the way he did it. 4 dimensional chess - do not mess with him, he'll make you cry in front of Radiohead.

5. **If** there's any truth to the speculation that Laine could never get over being healthy scratched by PV:
* A potential top-flight player requested out because of a slight by a coach...
**Who was hired because the coach they hired resigned in scandal (regardless of your take on the severity of the infraction)
***Who was hired because the coach they hired before that washed out after 2 years.
They now have 4 (?) coaches they are paying or paid in the past 3 years I think, and paid Laine about half a year's salary, plus traded him away, because of poor coaching choices. And our current coach was our second choice as well (albeit the second choice of a new regime).

I thought I had more than 5 thoughts, but I guess I don't.

 

[Ice9]

He escaped CBJ but I doubt he can run from an injury prone body. Sure doesn't get better with age son...

Turn the page. Camp is looming now with one less distraction.

 

[LoneFunyan]

jones + atkinson were basically saying "get rid of the star you just traded for and build around us" – but atkinson's game cratered without panarin, and jones wasn't willing to even talk about a long-term deal with the jackets.

there is no way that those guys got moved because they told jarmo to get rid of laine, as portzline surmises.

Until such time as the full story is told by those who lived it, it's all editorializing. There may have been a stark "get rid of Laine and Elvis" statement much as Portzline is saying, or it may have been more along the line of what you're suggesting - we don't know.

That said, it seems serendipitous that the story goes "the locker room identified Laine and Elvis as problems" and here we are years later saying Laine and Elvis are problems.

 

[VT]

When teams don’t properly vet Mike Babcock nothing surprises me.

Wow that is "chilling" where the players said get rid of Elvis and Laine and instead they get rid of the leadership team who said that.

Foligno was UFA after that season.
Look at Atkinson and Jones in Philly/Chicago and tell me, did Jarmo do it right?
Nyquist and Werenski stayed.
I think Porty used situation to claim they were traded because of Laine. I could but we will know what's happen in fact.

 

[HabsAddict]

4. Said it when it happened, I'll say it again: if you had a plan to take the knees out from under a team, you couldn't do much better than what PLD did and the way he did it. 4 dimensional chess - do not mess with him, he'll make you cry in front of Radiohead.
.

We dodged the PLDonkey bullet. Blake blew his brains out on the trade and didn't have to. Local rumours were the Habs were offering a late first and a B prospect. A fraction of what Blake offered.

On the other hand the Donkey was dishonest in using the Habs as leverage. He played the "i want to be with my family" card and it only had to do with getting a fat contract. He doesn't care what team he plays with or the team as long as he makes his money...and get a bit of cardio.

Most dishonest player I've seen in 60 years.

 

[majormajor]

Porty's comments are essentially what I was talking about here.

since the beginning that acquiring Laine marked the end of the high accountability team-focused club that we had.

Worth the listen

Porty got the year wrong, but around 4:45 in the video it gets interesting

He got a lot of details wrong. Jenner was there, not Foligno, and yes it was Spring 2021 when they had the meeting.

Okay, now look at the facts:

Jones wanted to play in a big market. Anyway, we can be glad he left, seeing his play in Chicago.

Everyone saw the reason for the Atkinson trade, we needed a playmaker and Cam wasn't that player for a long time, besides he had a long contract, btw look at his play in Philly. He seems to have a good relationship with Laine as well.

Gus wasn't traded until two years after the events and he played great on the line with .. Laine in the 2021/22 season.

Werenski told Finnish reporters that Patrik is a top NHL player when healthy and hopes to return for this year's World Championships in the Czech Republic. Although he didn't have to say that. And he seems to have a good relationship with him as well.

For Foligno, in addition to Nick's expiring contract, he was actually just loaned to Toronto. We're past the first round.

And if there was a problem with Laine in future seasons, one of the reporters would surely find out.

Some player would have told him. And if he was worried during the Jarmo time, he wouldn't have had a problem after he left.

Werenski, Nyquist, and Jenner were all in the meeting and all stayed. Jones made it clear after that meeting that he wanted to leave, but it may have been partly related to him not liking the club abandoning it's locker room in favor of Laine / and or Elvis.

The Atkinson trade worked as a hockey trade but the immediate impetus reported at the time was to get him away from Laine.

You also have Brad Shaw leaving shortly after, which could easily have been covered as him wanting to stick with Torts, but Shaw specifically said he didn't agree with the club's decisions.

jones + atkinson were basically saying "get rid of the star you just traded for and build around us" – but atkinson's game cratered without panarin, and jones wasn't willing to even talk about a long-term deal with the jackets.

there is no way that those guys got moved because they told jarmo to get rid of laine, as portzline surmises. they got moved because 1) cam was clearly not the same player anymore and 2) the roster still wouldn't be good had jones stayed, but would've been a disaster had they lost him for nothing.

they had to do a tear-down. laine stayed for the same reason werenski did – because they were impact players in their early-20s who could've become building blocks. one did, one didn't.

laine was apparently never a fit in the room, and the laine experiment didn't work out, but portzline's framing of this is journalistic malpractice.

That's actually your editorializing. You don't like Portzline's narrative so you're inserting your own, which is further from the truth.

It was obvious at the time that the leadership wanted to keep the accountability systems they had had in place for years. That's why they didn't want Laine or Merzlikins, because they refused to be held accountable. They weren't saying "build around us we're better players", it was about the room the entire time.

The timing of the Atkinson move was right after the meeting and it was reported at the time that it was because of Laine's presence. This isn't a new report.

Yes the team needed massive changes regardless, but that can be true in addition to the fact that the leadership group didn't want Laine and Elvis. Having a good hockey trade for Atkinson doesn't refute the report either.

 

[Fred Glover]

I’m glad that DW in cleaning this up

 

[CBJx614]

He escaped CBJ but I doubt he can run from an injury prone body. Sure doesn't get better with age son...

Turn the page. Camp is looming now with one less distraction.

Well hopefully you're wrong... Our FA acquisition this year is dependant on staying healthy despite getting older and having injury concerns in the past. He also went through something similar by taking some time off and healing properly

 

[HuGort]

Harris bottom pairing. Signed cheap with some upside.

Why Jackets dump Laine for nil? Was it just the money?

 

[MoeBartoli]

Worth the listen

Porty got the year wrong, but around 4:45 in the video it gets interesting

I just listened to this and found Porty’s observations generally accurate with much aligning with my own view. We can quibble about whether they cleaned house, getting rid of those wanting Laine and Elvis out, but clearly Cam and Jones were out.

Porty’s assertion that Laine never got over his heathy scratch - I don’t buy the illness Eason Vincent was selling - seems to align with events too so does his opinions of how Jarmo’s decisions went the rails after Bead and Bob left, resulting in his had odd brew of rebuild/compete-now moves that’s brought the club to where it is.

As Porty said, the Club is celebrating not having the retain and to avoid entering camp with this still hanging.

I couldn’t disagree more with the poster who claimed this was journalistic malpractice.

 

[Indy18]

Harris bottom pairing. Signed cheap with some upside.

Why Jackets dump Laine for nil? Was it just the money?

Nope sold his condo and said under no circumstance will he play on this team again.

 

[NotWendell]

Harris bottom pairing. Signed cheap with some upside.

Why Jackets dump Laine for nil? Was it just the money?

It was addition by subtraction on multiple levels - money being one of them.

 

[VT]

Mathieu Olivier about Laine. In French.

Comment définit-on Patrik Laine? | «Du talent plein les oreilles» -Mathieu Olivier

Écoutez Mathieu Olivier, coéquipier durant deux ans de Patrik Laine avec les Blue Jackets, parler de ce dernier à Mario Langlois.

www.957kyk.com

Certainly more informative than Portzline. By the way, Laine has had mental problems since at least before Olivier arrived if DeepL translates correctly for me.