I didn't suggest otherwise. This is a very defensive reaction for a post just sharing the details from the 2021 news story.
Obviously there is a lot of potential with Laine and that can balance out the baggage. I'm not saying they made a bad trade. I was just clarifying what the baggage is based on previous reporting.
I don't know if you think you're correcting me on that point, I found the Jones-Laine theory to be very flimsy.
Much the opposite.
Laine's skill set and the way he plays is two different things. He's a great shooter but he wants to be Mario Lemieux. They gave him a lot of time to gel with Johnny Gaudreau and it didn't work because Laine insisted on carrying the puck. I think Gaudreau had a better complementary skillset to Laine's actual skillset, he was a better playmaker than anyone in Montreal.
Certainly the players weren't that great (aside from Werenski) but I'm specifically talking about leadership and high standards. You can't ship out Foligno, Atkinson, Jones, Savard, etc.. and replace them with Laine, Roslovic, Domi, and Boqvist, and expect to keep the high standards you established over many years with the prior group. Laine himself is a big part of that because of how erratic his game is. He will be the best player on the ice one game and the worst the next. It's hard to keep team standards up with a guy like that.