I haven't chimed in here much, but isn't Laine playing D a lot? I think even at the expense of his offence. Often the first back checking and often covering for a roving D.
This is exactly how it really is. He has still a lot to do with his battling and board work, but he has been definitely even clearly better in those than he was last season. I have to say that it seems to me that for 10Ducky10 and some others around here there is a certain locked image on Laine's play. No matter how responsibly he plays positionally it seems to mean nothing, because he has been labeled already last season as a defensively weak player (which he in fact was not positionally even then), so that is what he is for some Jets fans, no matter how well and responsibly he plays defence. The good thing is that statistics show clearly that Laine has been good and responsible defensively, so us whom have seen it clearly in his game, we don't have to doubt our eyes and sanity.
I have also realized that there is a certain contrast with the thinking, of what really is good defence, between North Americans and Europeans. I think North Americans see the meaning of board battles, giveaways and takeaways in a much bigger meaning in good defence than Europeans in general. For Europeans it is the positional play which is usually the most meaningful part of good and responsible defensive play. In reality all of these areas are important, but I myself tend to still think also that the positional play is after all the most meaningful part of good defence, as with it, it is easiest to consistently keep the opponent away from scoring the easiest goals. Laine for example is very good positionally in covering for a pinching defenceman or his center, if the center goes aggressively to the front of the opponents goal. Laine is very often in these situations the first player to cover in between the puck and the Jets goalie, if and when a turnover happens. He is also usually playing in a way time for the other players to get back to defence and have a positionally sound defensive stand again, before the opponent can use any advantage of having the temporary man advantage situation. The value of this kind of playing seems to really be very underestimated on these boards, so I tend to believe that it has to do more with the North American way of seeing good defence in general. Of course this does not apply in this way for all North American or all European posters, just generally there seems to be a bit of this kind of difference.