Patrik Laine: A division rival of the CH is interested in signing him

Félix Forget
Patrik Laine: A division rival of the CH is interested in signing him
Credit: Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

In just over 36 hours, Patrik Laine's time in Montreal will officially come to an end. The Finnish player will become a free agent at noon on Wednesday… and he'll be able to continue his career elsewhere.

Forget about the possibility of him returning to Montreal next year—it's not going to happen.

The question now is where he'll end up. And for a while now, the Los Angeles Kings have frequently been mentioned as a team to watch.

And tonight, David Pagnotta touched on the Laine situation in an article on The Fourth Period. He states that many teams, including the Kings, will be interested.

But in addition to the Kings, Pagnotta also mentioned another team very specifically: the Tampa Bay Lightning. And that, as we know, is a divisional rival of the Habs.

We know the Lightning just lost Darren Raddysh, whose powerful one-timer helped the team score quite a few power-play goals. Even though Raddysh is a defenseman and Laine is a forward, the Finn could help replace Raddysh's production on the power play.

We saw it clearly in Montreal: Laine still has a one-timer that looks like a missile. And with Nikita Kucherov, he'd be fed the puck all he wants to fire away at will.

Keep in mind that Laine, having spent more than 100 days on the injured reserve list last year, is eligible to sign a contract that includes performance bonuses. The Lightning (or any other team looking to sign him) could therefore sign him to a contract with a relatively low cap hit.

We'll recall that when Laine faced the Blue Jackets for the first time as a member of the Habs, he tore his former team apart: will he do the same with the Canadiens, especially if he joins a division rival like the Lightning?


Quick Thoughts

– What do you think?

– Wow.

– Phew.

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