I do like Laine. I think his shot is better than Ovies or Draisaitl.So do you question as well Barkov’s summer training? Laine is training with him for already a third summer in a row. Barkov is known as a very hard training player and he wouldn’t even take a payer to train with him if he wouldn’t know that that player is really committed into training.
Laine’s problem was never that he wouldn’t train hard, but his problem has been his weak physique that doesn’t seem to take hard training very well without injuries. Especially his core (back and oblique both) have been causing him problems since he was a teenager. This is the only thing that I’m worried about when talking about Laine. Of course it’s not necessarily a small thing to worry about. And because of the risk of injuries, I think he should realize that it would be reasonable for him to settle for something hopefully under 9.0 millions per season.
That being said, a 9M$ player HAS to carry an average team above the playoff line no matter the division. Laine didnt check that box.
Teams that accept having 9m players that cant carry their weight are not where other players want to come. Getting a big anchor contract is the way to kill the reset and head to another rebuild.