Laine would survive that easily, he doesn't give a shit about that kind of things. He has been through such a media/fan circus in Finland nothing will destroy him.
Tortorella has been good with offensively talented players before, too.
I think Laine would enjoy being the undisputed #1 man on the PP, hammering in as many slappers as he wants to, for years.
It's not a media circus that Laine is going to have to deal with. What is his reaction to being benched game after game if he doesn't play the right way? Maurice never did that with Laine, he worked on him but it was off-ice. Torts will bench him and scream in his face.
And Torts obviously has no problem with offensive talent. He has a problem with anything less than 100% consistent defensive effort. That's why acquiring Laine would be strange for Columbus - apart from him not being a play-driving center.
I suppose I should add that it has been worrying thinking about how Laine would react to not having star forwards to play alongside. He's been complaining about his linemates in Winnipeg, but the ones he has (even when he was on the second line) are better than anybody Columbus has. We can't top Ehlers and Stastny let alone Connor and Scheifele.
Here's another reason - there is a team culture in Columbus that is a little bit different. Players just don't publicly complain about not being with their favorite linemates, or not getting the most minutes in their favorite situations. You just do what you're told and that is the end of it. The players built that attitude over the course of the last 8-9 years, you can't let one player come and set it aside.
