2 Canadiens Ready To Hit New Levels In 2026-27
Don’t be surprised if these two Canadiens reach new heights next season.
Video Transcript
Yes, I think he’s gonna get an incentive-based one-year contract, low AAV with performance bonuses based on pl- Yep based on how many games he plays.
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Yeah.
I could see, like you said, Jarmo Kekalainen traded for him when he was in Winnipeg.
Yeah.
He made the Pierre-Luc Dubois deal and brought Laine to Columbus.
So that might be a low-risk move that the, that the Sabres or some team, if, if not the Sabres, then some team desperate for scoring like Calgary or Vancouver would make.
But I think, I think he’s gonna end up on an NHL roster, but probably doesn’t get signed until maybe just before training camp.
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Okay.
It, it’s, it’s tricky, right?
‘Cause y- you have to have him on your top two lines or you’re not picking up Laine.
At the same time, are you comfortable putting a guy who played in five games last year and, you know, 52 games the year before, 18 games the year before that, on your top two lines and just saying, “Okay, well, we’re riding, dying with Patrick Laine”?
It, it, it’s difficult.
I think, I think you get away with putting him on the third line and have him be a power play specialist.
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If you look when he scored 20 goals with Montreal, like almost all the goals were on the power play.
So, you know, he’s a defensive liability.
He has no interest in playing defense.
So you can’t really put him in the top six, or if you do, then the third period you’re gonna have to switch somebody out to put, in with hi- in with him and move him out, or even sit him in the third period ’cause he’s so much of a liability.
But he- Yeah he’s such a, he can, he sets himself up at the, in the face-off circle, on the power play and blasts away.
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It’s a weapon you gotta, you, you might, might have to take advantage of.
Yeah.
I, I think- Yeah Pittsburgh is a real good logical spa- spot for him.
I think you also need to find a room where Laine can’t just start sulking and refusing to kind of- Yeah you know, play, which he’s kind of done in the past, whether it’s with Winnipeg or, or Columbus.
So having Sidney Crosby there to kind of keep him in check, I, I like that idea.
