Why the Patrik Laine trade feels familiar but represents a shift for the Canadiens

On the surface, this feels extremely similar.

On Aug. 18, 2022, Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes was on a video conference to discuss his acquisition of Sean Monahan from the Calgary Flames, a trade that netted the Canadiens a 2025 first-round pick for taking on Monahan’s contract.

On Aug. 19, 2024, Hughes was again on a video conference to discuss his acquisition of Patrik Laine from the Columbus Blue Jackets, a trade that netted the Canadiens a 2026 second-round pick for taking on Laine’s contract.

Both Monahan and Laine were looking to resurrect their once-promising NHL careers. Both Laine and Monahan were once very high draft picks, once prolific NHL scorers. Both Laine and Monahan ran into health issues that derailed those promising careers.

The Canadiens gave Monahan the runway to prove he had not lost what made him such a promising player and effective scorer. Their circumstances allowed Monahan to leverage that opportunity into a five-year contract worth $5.5 million a year with the Blue Jackets on July 1, only after the Canadiens had acquired another first-round draft pick for Monahan from the Winnipeg Jets ahead of the 2024 trade deadline, a pick they ultimately turned into Michael Hage at the 2024 NHL Draft in Las Vegas.

The Canadiens found Monahan was an excellent influence on their young players. Hughes said Monday he hopes Laine will do the same, saying, “I’m a believer that really good offensive players help other players become better.”

Monahan needed a two-year runway to show the NHL he was still Sean Monahan. Laine has two years left on his contract.

So, yeah. Very similar.

But what’s not similar is where the Canadiens are as a team, as an organization, in their ambitions.

Monahan was always going to be a flip candidate because there was very little chance the Canadiens were going to put themselves in a position where keeping him at the trade deadline would make any sense.

Laine, on the other hand, is being looked upon as a player who can help the Canadiens take a step in their progression. There is an obvious hole on their second line that Laine fills. There is an obvious hole on their second power-play unit that Laine fills. There is an obvious need for more pure goal-scoring ability that Laine fills. And all of those filled holes could get the Canadiens closer to their stated goal for the 2024-25 season, which is to compete for a playoff spot, to be in the mix, as Hughes repeated Monday.

Laine doesn’t change that goal. He simply reinforces it. He is the only player on the Canadiens roster to have scored 40 goals in an NHL season. He has a world-class shot. He is 6-foot-5. He is a player the Canadiens simply did not have.

Now, they do, assuming they can get Laine back to the version of the player we saw over the first four years of his career, from 2016-17 to 2019-20, when he scored 138 goals in 305 games, ninth in the league over that span. Since then, Laine’s 66 goals in 175 games are tied for 132nd in the NHL.

Hughes mentioned Monday how in every trade the Canadiens make, there is a risk/reward calculation that has to be made. The risk in Laine’s case is he will not find the former version of himself and the Canadiens will pay him $8.7 million a year to not be an $8.7 million a year player. And that risk is considerable, because 2020, in NHL terms, was a long time ago.

The reward, of course, is the possibility the Canadiens just added a 40-goal scorer for two years, and did so at a very low trade cost, with only defenceman Jordan Harris going the other way, who was going to have a difficult time cementing an NHL job in Montreal going forward and, frankly, will probably have just as difficult a time doing so in Columbus.

The risk is mitigated by Laine’s personal circumstances — the journey he has taken as a man more so than a hockey player and the possibility that journey could help him find that hockey player once again.

Laine entered the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program on Jan. 28, a massive X-factor for the Canadiens. He said Monday that his request to be traded out of Columbus was to give himself a fresh start — not as a player, but as a person. No one can know the impact a mental health issue can have on a person other than the person himself, which is why the Canadiens wanted to have a chance to talk to Laine before making this trade, something that happened over the weekend. Hughes, Jeff Gorton and Martin St. Louis took part in that conversation and came away “reassured” that Laine was in a good place, which is why the trade culminated Monday.

But listening to Laine, it becomes clear why the mitigation of risk in this instance was so reassuring to the Canadiens.

“I think most importantly it’s been about Patty as a person more than Patty the hockey player,” Laine said. “But one thing I’ve noticed is when you’re not enjoying whatever you do, you’re probably not going to be able to perform. That’s kind of where I’ve been at. I haven’t been enjoying myself for a while. But now I’m happier than ever off the ice and done a lot of work on myself to get be back to this point where I’m actually super excited about playing in a new place with new teammates in a new city. I’ve learned a lot of things over these last couple of years, and now it’s a really good time to put them to the test.”

Laine has had a litany of physical ailments that have limited his production over the last four years, but his talent has never been in doubt.

“I just knew as a person I needed a new start somewhere else, more so as a person than as a hockey player, and that’s what I’m more worried about, me as a person,” Laine said. “Obviously, there was stuff that happened in Columbus on and off the ice that kind of haunts a little bit. I just feel like I needed a restart for my life and my career, and now I’m super fortunate to have that in Montreal and I couldn’t be happier about it.”

Laine and his fiancée Jordan Leigh launched an initiative one week before the trade aiming to allow people to express what helped them with their mental health challenges called From Us to You, something Laine expressed enormous pride in. Seeking help, he said, is a sign of strength and not weakness.

From a purely hockey perspective, Laine is also a good risk. And the Canadiens know this because they have done this before. In fact, they have done it every offseason of the Jeff Gorton/Hughes regime. Whether it was Kirby Dach or Alex Newhook or Monahan or Laine, the Canadiens have sought to add offensive talent from a team that might have been undervaluing that talent, for whatever reason.

Laine is the only player on the Canadiens roster to have scored 40 goals in an NHL season. (Bailey Hillesheim / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Coach Martin St. Louis’ presence is a big part of the belief the Canadiens can find value where other teams have seen none, as is the hockey development staff headed by Adam Nicholas. However, when Hughes was asked why he is so confident in the Canadiens’ ability to unearth that value that other teams either didn’t see or weren’t able to exploit, he began right at the top.

“I think first and foremost, our locker room, and credit to our coaching staff and our entire organization. It starts at the top with Geoff Molson,” Hughes said. “As everyone here probably knows or should know, this is the first time I’ve worked on the team side, so this is my first organization. But I’ve dealt with every team over my career as an agent. The personal touch that Geoff demonstrates on so many different levels; every player that we trade away that he picks up the phone and calls, every player that comes in. I didn’t represent a lot of players that had that experience.

“So I think it starts from the top that we have an environment here where people feel that they’re part of something. They feel valued. They understand that being part of something means you have responsibility that comes with it. Ultimately, more than anything else, that comes from our coaching staff and having good people that want to be part of a team and good leadership. That’s important to us and that was discussed with Patrik. We’re confident and hopeful that he will come here and he will add to that.”

If St. Louis decides to keep the top line of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Slafkovský intact, the addition of Laine means he could join Dach and Newhook on what could be a very effective second line. And if Suzuki, Caufield, Slafkovský, Dach and Mike Matheson make up the top power-play unit, Laine and Newhook would give some teeth to a second unit that was largely toothless last season.

Furthermore, Laine’s presence on a second line would mean the Canadiens wouldn’t be forced to give Joshua Roy too much too soon. It would allow them to have a collection of depth talent in Josh Anderson, Brendan Gallagher, Joel Armia, Christian Dvorak, Jake Evans and Roy fill out the bottom six.

Finally, the fact Harris is going back to Columbus is probably as beneficial to the Canadiens as it is to the Blue Jackets. With Lane Hutson and David Reinbacher entering their first pro seasons and Logan Mailloux also looking to make the jump to the NHL, someone had to go on the Canadiens’ crowded blue line. Of the young options that were potentially available to Columbus — including Harris, Arber Xhekaj, Justin Barron and Jayden Struble — Harris was the most expensive at $1.4 million this season and probably the most expendable for Montreal. It would not be the least bit surprising if it was the Canadiens who insisted on Harris going back as opposed to the Blue Jackets insisting he be included, because while the Canadiens have room to add Laine from a salary-cap perspective, it is tight.

Ridding themselves of the entirety of Laine’s contract was a top priority for Columbus, and Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell said the Canadiens were the only team willing to do so, which provided some leverage to Hughes in talks.

But it is just as important to the Canadiens that they be able to incorporate Laine’s $8.7 million AAV while also entering next season with Carey Price’s $10.5 million contract on the payroll, something Hughes said he believes the Canadiens will still be able to do. They probably could not have done that with Harris’ $1.4 million still on the books.

In addition to that, having Harris around would have been a further impediment to bringing in some of the most promising youth on the Canadiens blue line this season, a list that includes Hutson, Reinbacher and Mailloux.

“It’s hard to say that anything’s a priority without them playing and earning it,” Hughes said. “I guess there’s a threshold issue that they have to show that they’re deserving of being in the National Hockey League. But it is important to us to be in a position that if they demonstrate that, to give them opportunity instead of having them relegated to the American Hockey League irrespective of their play because we don’t have room.”

Going back to the Monahan trade, the similarities aren’t all that great because this trade is a reflection of where the Canadiens hope to be over the course of the two remaining years of Laine’s contract. They see Laine as a potential contributor to them getting where they want to go, which was also true of Monahan, but in a different way. Hughes, as a former agent, hates referring to players as assets. But Monahan was seen as a potential asset that could bring in more assets, whereas Laine is clearly seen as an asset that can help the Canadiens himself, and not in a future trade.

“To me, this isn’t a transaction that either he scores 40 or 50 or it’s a bust, far from it,” Hughes said. “I relayed to him that if you come here ready to contribute to this team, to do everything in your power to help us get to a place, if that’s the opportunity you’re looking for, then say no more. That’s what I want to hear from you; whether you score 20 goals or 40 goals, your success here will not strictly be defined by goals.”

This represents a shift for the Canadiens, one communicated by Hughes and Gorton at the end of last season, but one that is best demonstrated by this trade.

The Canadiens are ready to compete. They are ready to embark on the path to being good and, eventually, even great. And they are ready to take the risks necessary to make that happen.

In that sense, Patrik Laine is the embodiment of what the Canadiens hope to be in 2024-25.

He is hoping for a fresh start, and so is his new team.

(Top photo: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)