"It doesn't matter how much money we waste because we suck anyway!" is a WILD rebuild strategy.
1. This post presumes that it will be a waste of money. Which is still to be determined
2. The cap committed to Laine will not affect the habs ability to add additional assets as of next year, as they have several big salaries coming off the books and no one of note to sign. They could literally sign Draisaitl if he was available and wanted to come to Montreal.
3. There is currently no better option on the market. The habs have cap space, better to use it than to leave it sitting. It's not like they are losing out on some other option right now.
4. There are 2 years left on Laine's deal. They can absord the gamble for each of the two years without it preventing them from improving in year 2.
5. The habs finished the last two seasons in the bottom 5. Expectations are low, and if doesn't work out, you cant really get worse than bottom 5, and at that point, they get another lottery pick - yay!
6. The habs are likely to get a high second rounder for Harris, a player they probably had to move anyway because their depth at D.
7. This gamble is literally a no brainer for a team that needs top 6 help, has the cap sapce to asborb the player, will not be affected long-term, still has a boatload of assets to make additional moves.
8. If they really need the cap space this season, they have players like Savard, Armia, and Dvorak who can get traded. They can even move Matheson if they want. They have a ton of assets to pay people to take other salaries if they really need the space for an opportunity.
Maybe it sucks that your team can;t take these gambles, but thats not our problem. Everyone in habs land, from the team to the fans are okay with the gamble. At worse, we stay status quo, at best, we get paid a 2nd to take a player that produces at a 30+g clip. That's up there with getting a 1st to take Monahan and other 1st after building up his value. You can even add trading Petry twice that gave the habs Matheson, 2nd, 3rd, 4th round pick.
I think the GM knows what hes doing