Player Discussion: Patrik Laine IVever: a new hope? (Laine out of PAP, trade request still stands)

[Aaaarrgghh]

That actually makes sense. Hmmm..

Panthers fans are divided about keeping Ekblad. He's good but maybe not $7.5m good?? (I don't know his game well enough to comment).

One issue is that he likely doesn't waive to come here unless we are offering a big long term extension. So we really have to like the player. But maybe he'd be great #2D for Werenski? I don't know.

I don't know either. I guess next to Werenski, he would play a role as a defensive D. He has one year left on his deal, so that raises a lot of questions too regarding his future. Maybe Columbus would prefer to get a veteran like this short-term and have some flexibility going forward?

 

[majormajor]

I don't know either. I guess next to Werenski, he would play a role as a defensive D. He has one year left on his deal, so that raises a lot of questions too regarding his future. Maybe Columbus would prefer to get a veteran like this short-term and have some flexibility going forward?

Right, I'd almost jump on it if it was just a one year trial, where we could make him an offer if it works. But he has a 12 team NTC that I'm guessing we're on (being a rebuilding club) and I don't see him waiving to do a trial run, I think he only waives if he gets the extension he wants.

 

[koteka]

Ekblad is worth $7.5 million, but with only one year left, why? Trade him at the deadline? Hope for a better return at the deadline for Ekblad than we could get for Laine now? Florida has no 1st until 2026. They have no recent draft picks we would want. Mackie Samoskevich? Are we going for all Russians and Wolverines? Florida just doesn’t look like a good trading partner for the Jackets.

 

[Jovavic]

Unless there's a third team involved I don't see how he goes to Florida

 

[Youngguns1380]

Someone is going to pay Reinhart a ridiculous sum. I wouldn't do it, I don't think he's that great away from Barkov.

Don’t get the all the love for Reinhart. He is good but never thought about him as top 6 winger I need to have on my team.

He is the current flavor of the hockey season. He will sign a big deal and regress.

 

[Viqsi]

Are we going for all Russians and Wolverines?

I can think of worse approaches to team building.

 

[Aaaarrgghh]

Ekblad is worth $7.5 million, but with only one year left, why? Trade him at the deadline? Hope for a better return at the deadline for Ekblad than we could get for Laine now? Florida has no 1st until 2026. They have no recent draft picks we would want. Mackie Samoskevich? Are we going for all Russians and Wolverines? Florida just doesn’t look like a good trading partner for the Jackets.

It might be nice to have a veteran top-pairing defenseman that can be a leader on the team. If it's a fit, they can re-sign him. If it's not, he can be traded or let go with someone signed in free agency.

What (at least semi-realistic) return do you think would be ideal for Laine in terms of players? I'm not sure that the Blue Jackets need more draft picks, unless it's to trade for a quality player.

Personally, looking at the roster, I see a gaping hole on the blueline next to Werenski at the moment. If they can't bring in a veteran player like Roy, DeMelo or Tanev in free agency, getting a player like Ekblad or Pietrangelo as a stopgap until Jiricek is ready sounds perfectly fine to me.

 

[koteka]

It might be nice to have a veteran top-pairing defenseman that can be a leader on the team. If it's a fit, they can re-sign him. If it's not, he can be traded or let go with someone signed in free agency.

What (at least semi-realistic) return do you think would be ideal for Laine in terms of players? I'm not sure that the Blue Jackets need more draft picks, unless it's to trade for a quality player.

Personally, looking at the roster, I see a gaping hole on the blueline next to Werenski at the moment. If they can't bring in a veteran player like Roy, DeMelo or Tanev in free agency, getting a player like Ekblad or Pietrangelo as a stopgap until Jiricek is ready sounds perfectly fine to me.

1) Florida isn’t trading Ekblad so it was purely hypothetical anyway. Who was on the ice at the end of game 3 when Florida had a one goal lead and the Oilers pulled the goalie?

2) If Ekblad was traded to Columbus, why wouldn’t he want to get to free agency?

3) Is a guy like Ekblad who would expect to be traded at the deadline going to bond with the rest of the team or is he not going to want to get too close to guys because he expects a trade in a few months?

If Ekblad had 3 years left (and Florida was willing to trade him) I’d be all over it.

My expected return for unretained Laine is a decent prospect and a pick. I am hoping for a solid defensively 21 or 22 year old prospect who might have been in college or Europe for a couple of seasons and then has spent a year in the AHL and looks on track to be an NHL guy.

Anyway, we could use picks and prospects acquired for Laine plus what we already have to make a move might be useful to get us that stop gap.

Note: Retention on Laine would get us a better return, but it might just be better to find a team that will take him without retention and take what we can get.

 

[Aaaarrgghh]

1) Florida isn’t trading Ekblad so it was purely hypothetical anyway. Who was on the ice at the end of game 3 when Florida had a one goal lead and the Oilers pulled the goalie?

2) If Ekblad was traded to Columbus, why wouldn’t he want to get to free agency?

3) Is a guy like Ekblad who would expect to be traded at the deadline going to bond with the rest of the team or is he not going to want to get too close to guys because he expects a trade in a few months?

If Ekblad had 3 years left, I’d be all over it.

My expected return for unretained Laine is a decent prospect and a pick. I am hoping for a solid defensively 21 or 22 year old prospect who might have been in college or Europe for a couple of seasons and then has spent a year in the AHL and looks on track to be an NHL guy.

Anyway, we could use picks and prospects acquired for Laine plus what we already have to make a move might be useful to get us that stop gap.

Note: Retention on Laine would get us a better return, but it might just be better to find a team that will take him without retention and take what we can get.

All talk of a Laine trade is hypothetical. The Ekblad suggestion was of course assuming that Florida would like to keep the younger* and probably cheaper Montour instead of him. I don't care to speculate about Ekblad's motivations for accepting a trade to Columbus, because I don't know anything about him personally.

To me, an ideal return for a trade involving Laine would be a quality roster player, like Nelson, Ehlers or Necas. Preferably a top 6 C or a top 4 RD, because those are the biggest holes that Columbus have in the skating line-up.

I think that it's very likely that any Laine trade will include retention.

*Wrong, he's older.

 

[ColumbusTrill]

All talk of a Laine trade is hypothetical. The Ekblad suggestion was of course assuming that Florida would like to keep the younger and probably cheaper Montour instead of him. I don't care to speculate about Ekblad's motivations for accepting a trade to Columbus, because I don't know anything about him personally.

To me, an ideal return for a trade involving Laine would be a quality roster player, like Nelson, Ehlers or Necas. Preferably a top 6 C or a top 4 RD, because those are the biggest holes that Columbus have in the skating line-up.

I think that it's very likely that any Laine trade will include retention.

fyi montour is 2 years older than ekblad

 

[Aaaarrgghh]

fyi montour is 2 years older than ekblad

For some reason, I was convinced that he was in his mid-20's. Dementia came early for me. Thanks.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

Don’t get the all the love for Reinhart. He is good but never thought about him as top 6 winger I need to have on my team.

He is the current flavor of the hockey season. He will sign a big deal and regress.

Reinhart’s a good player. He’d be a glue guy on this roster. But as folks are saying, he’ll make too much money for what he brings.

 

[cbjthrowaway]

Reinhart’s a good player. He’d be a glue guy on this roster. But as folks are saying, he’ll make too much money for what he brings.

at a certain point, though, when you are a non-playoff team, you generally need players who bring more. the jackets being a rebuilding team also gives them some cap flexibility in the form of guys with multiple ELC years.

i doubt reinhart leaves florida, but the larger point is that in any league with rookie contract limits and a rising salary cap, player payroll resources will never be closely aligned to individual player output, and that's by design. it's about roster aggregate output/resources. you can have an 'overpaid' star and still greatly benefit from it.

 

[Viqsi]

at a certain point, though, when you are a non-playoff team, you generally need players who bring more. the jackets being a rebuilding team also gives them some cap flexibility in the form of guys with multiple ELC years.

i doubt reinhart leaves florida, but the larger point is that in any league with rookie contract limits and a rising salary cap, player payroll resources will never be closely aligned to individual player output, and that's by design. it's about roster aggregate output/resources. you can have an 'overpaid' star and still greatly benefit from it.

While I agree in principle, I think in Reinhart's case in particular the excess is going to be high enough that it would cause more harm than benefit.

 

[squashmaple]

at a certain point, though, when you are a non-playoff team, you generally need players who bring more. the jackets being a rebuilding team also gives them some cap flexibility in the form of guys with multiple ELC years.

i doubt reinhart leaves florida, but the larger point is that in any league with rookie contract limits and a rising salary cap, player payroll resources will never be closely aligned to individual player output, and that's by design. it's about roster aggregate output/resources. you can have an 'overpaid' star and still greatly benefit from it.

And Columbus already has that "overpaid star" in Johnny Gaudreau. Columbus has no business being in the market for another when there are fifteen other things more pressing.

 

[Viqsi]

And Columbus already has that "overpaid star" in Johnny Gaudreau. Columbus has no business being in the market for another when there are fifteen other things more pressing.

And to lesser extents, Gudbranson and Severson. And the fact that Boone isn't one by virtue of being if anything underpaid is why any talk whatsoever of moving him should get folks burned for heresy, but that's neither here nor there.

 

[squashmaple]

And to lesser extents, Gudbranson and Severson. And the fact that Boone isn't one by virtue of being if anything underpaid is why any talk whatsoever of moving him should get folks burned for heresy, but that's neither here nor there.

Girl. No. Neither of the ‘sons is by any metric a “star” lol.

 

[Viqsi]

Girl. No. Neither of the ‘sons is by any metric a “star” lol.

I was thinking less "star" and more "skilled vet". Maybe I got context-shifted or something.

 

[Zbynek]

What kind of return is Columbus looking to get for Laine? I think he fits in Pittsburgh, given his term and the role he would get on the Pens. But it's hard to gage value from the outside.

 

[JohnnyJacket13]

What kind of return is Columbus looking to get for Laine? I think he fits in Pittsburgh, given his term and the role he would get on the Pens. But it's hard to gage value from the outside.

1. I don’t see us as good trading partners. We’re probably looking for a 1 for 1 swap, and I don’t see a good candidate that would make it worth it…which brings me to my next point:

2. I don’t see why we’d look to move him within our division unless if it made too much sense to do so.

We may also be interested in futures, but I think that would be secondary to finding a match that involves NHL-level talent

 

[Jovavic]

Whatever you think it is, double it and call it a Pittsburgh Tax

 

[VT]

Reading the trade proposals like on forums/hockey sites, I'm starting to think Columbus has relocated to an area of permafrost when they're offering us so much wood.

 

[DoingItCoolKiwi]

Reading the trade proposals like on forums/hockey sites, I'm starting to think Columbus has relocated to an area of permafrost when they're offering us so much wood.

I had to block the tradeboard thread for my own mental health.. It's so rough to read some of that stuff.

Plenty of valid negative arguments to pick from against him, but so many people are pretending to be experts when they clearly haven't watched him since like 2017

 

[Indy18]

I had to block the tradeboard thread for my own mental health.. It's so rough to read some of that stuff.

Plenty of valid negative arguments to pick from against him, but so many people are pretending to be experts when they clearly haven't watched him since like 2017

I personally "enjoyed" the video game addiction discussion. I just wanted to reach through the screen and say "Pot meet kettle"

 

[LJ7]

He can be an incredible asset to a line and a powerplay still. Health is the biggest concern with him but there will certainly be some teams that aren't scared of that. Roughly a PPG player here on a team that he really did not fit well on. We can absolutely get a good player or a few solid ones for him.

His first season here set him behind the 8 ball in terms of fan perception, but after that he played good hockey for us. He doesn't fit here and it is far easier to picture our lineups without him, but he is good.