It’s still a hockey mad city. It still has lots of jerks who don’t mind making dumb comments when you’re out at the supermarket. That’s not going to change.
Given the risks associated with a blind long-term commitment to a UFA whose capability to endure the Montreal market is unknown, it's certainly more cautious and safe to acquire a short term player to help continue its trajectory until the rebuild leads to a more firm outline of what this team is capable of achieving and what it needs. Using your reasoning, the Habs should
not leave spare cap space for UFAs at any time because we simply won't know how the UFA would handle the pressure cooker, infinitely difficult, career-threatening Montreal market that caused Bill Durnan tragic early retirement at age 34 in 1950.
Outside of the UFA market which is, let's face it, not very reliable even in the best scenario the only other way to inject talent into the lineup is to take calculated risks (futures for presents) and then try to retain the players who can endure the diamond-like pressure that comes with playing in his here market -- the same pressure that Alan Walsh cited to deflect from his client Jonathan Drouin's poor performance and personal off-ice troubles. In fact, the two-year "trial" period that comes with Laine is a valuable BONUS and RAISES his value for a team like Montreal and the furnace-like heat the players endure in their quotidian life. If at the end of his deal, at age 28 (UFA age), both sides want to continue the relationship it would've been because both sides enjoyed the preceding two years. If not, then not -- and the long-term trajectory of the team was never affected.
The valuable trial-period makes me think the Habs should pay up to secure his services because the upside is truly great. Obviously "pay up" has different connotations for different people but in my humble opinion I would dare go up as much as offering CGY's 1st + the esteemed and irreplaceable
Justin Barron (who could one day even be a full-time NHLer). The trial period is the key to the whole thing -- because Montreal is
such a difficult market, you have to be sure.