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There are only 24 hours left before the trade freeze goes into effect during the Olympic break. Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton have until 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday to find a new team for Patrik Laine, otherwise they will have to try to do so between February 23 and March 6 inclusive.
For now, it is impossibleto activate Laine without cutting one of the 23 players currently on the team. And it will remain that way until March 6 at 3:01 p.m.
Reminder: once the deadline has passed, NHL teams are no longer required to have 23 or fewer players on their main roster… as long as they comply with the salary cap.
One thing is certain: if Laine or Newhook is activated before March 6, Kent Hughes will have to remove one or two players from his Montreal roster before activating either forward. He has no choice!
The options
1. Alexandre Texier could be placed on the injured list, as he is struggling with a minor injury that refuses to heal. If Texier is still injured after the Olympics—will he even participate?—he could allow Laine to return to play at the end of February. Because we can all agree that it would be surprising to see the habs activate Laine tomorrow for his last game before the Olympic break. #Patience
Except that Laine, who has been a good player in recent weeks, will want to play after the Olympics. He will certainly refuse to remain on IR when he says he is ready to play.
And I don't see him accepting a loan to the Laval Rocket for conditioning purposes. He'll be shopping for a contract this summer, and bad games in the American Hockey League could hurt him badly (and good games wouldn't help him that much either).
2. The only players who can go to Laval without going through waivers are Jakub Dobes, Lane Hutson, Oliver Kapanen, and Ivan Demidov. That's not going to happen!
It should be noted that as of this morning, Zachary Bolduc can no longer be exempt from waivers. He has now played 160 games (regular season and playoffs) in the NHL.
With Newhook and Laine set to return soon, Bolduc must now go through waivers to be sent to Laval.
As soon as a player plays 160 games (season + playoffs), which Bolduc did yesterday, he must go through waivers, even on his rookie contract.
— Guillaume Villemaire (@GVillemaire13) February 3, 2026
3. Trading Laine or another player on the team would of course solve the problem, but Laine has no (positive) value on the market, and I don't really see who could be traded/sacrificed this winter by the Canadiens to make room for Laine. It just doesn't add up!
Hughes will have to agree to keep Laine's salary—an amount that will be lower after the Olympics—and he'll also have to give something to the GM who dares to take a chance on the enigmatic Finnish forward.
4. Placing Joe Veleno, Samuel Blais, Jayden Struble, Brendan Gallagher, Phillip Danault, or Jake Evans on waivers and then sending him to Laval remains an option in theory.
Except that Kent Hughes made that mistake with Samuel Blais in October; I can't see him making the same mistake just a few months later. You're likely to need Blais and Veleno in the playoffs, and the GM knows it.
In short, you've probably come to the same conclusion as me: Patrik Laine has become a hot potato for the Canadiens… a problem that needs to be solved quickly. Either by tomorrow (plan #1 for Montreal management) or in the days following the Milan Games, in order to save a few dollars for the team that dares to acquire him.
And the option of sending Zachary Bolduc to Laval to achieve this is no longer available since yesterday's game in Minnesota.
Oh yes… Alex Newhook should be ready to play in the days following the NHL's return to action at the end of the month. Will he wait until February 7 to give his GM more room to maneuver? After the Laine problem comes the Newhook problem.
