Call me crazy, but I still think Laine puts it together at some point, and becomes a legit star. His natural talent is unreal, 6’5” with a beyond elite shot, great offensive hockey IQ, great hands, and good enough skating. Dude put up a 44 goal, 70 point season at age 19 - it’s been all downhill from there, but he still has the talent to do that and more again.
Clearly he’s a head case, very inconsistent from game to game, lacking in preparation, focus, and consistent effort both on and off the ice. But when he’s “on”, he’s a stud, and I do think at some point he’ll mature and figure out how to be “on” much more consistently.
He’s only 23, he still has time to get his shit together, and I suspect he will.
Yeah and we'll keep Pld we are just trading Laine back for the 3rd pick part of the deal. But seriously, keep him.nah, we're keeping Roz.
Laine is a good player who has been constantly surrounded by toxic environments, whether a terrible Winnipeg locker room, or a belligerent Torts. Sure, he needs to work on some things, but the hate this guy gets here isn't warranted.
But is it the last hunk before he Filatovs his way out of the league?Nice hunk of coal
His quotes about how he should play with Schiefele and not play with Little came across as very entitled and self-serving. Not all team's best wingers play with their team's best center, as teams sometimes try to spread out the scoring. Kane didn't always play with Toews, Marner didn't play with Matthews for the first 3 and a half years of his career, etc. If you are as good as Laine seems to think he is and have the contract demands he did, you should be expected to carry a 2nd line, and not require a franchise center to perform.The hate here is funny. POS washed up Yakupov... the kid speaks his mind for sure but I dont get the sense that he is an entitled wasted player. Seems like the kind of player that isnt super focused all the time but truly wants to do well. I think the situation in Columbus with Torts gone and Finnish GM could pan out this season. He is not the type of player to lift the whole team, he certainly needs talent around him, but he has enough talent to still thrive in the league if things go decent to start the season.
Funny how he was so loved and celebrated at one point (not too long ago) but now is extremely loathed. If I had to bet my money, I would place it on Laine finding his game and continuing to score for years to come.
But is it the last hunk before he Filatovs his way out of the league?
Nah, he’s an RFA.Boss move by Laine. He’s outta there after this year.
makes him a UFA next year. Check that. Though I am no expert on the cap I looked it up. He willlikely be an RFAWill he still be an RFA after his deal is up?
His quotes about how he should play with Schiefele and not play with Little came across as very entitled and self-serving. Not all team's best wingers play with their team's best center, as teams sometimes try to spread out the scoring. Kane didn't always play with Toews, Marner didn't play with Matthews for the first 3 and a half years of his career, etc. If you are as good as Laine seems to think he is and have the contract demands he did, you should be expected to carry a 2nd line, and not require a franchise center to perform.
You really want to bring Matthews into it, who played with Connor Brown and Hyman most of his rookie year? And, guess what, when you are your teams best player and franchise center you get to dictate things a bit more. Did he go to the Arizona press and whine? I know Laine went back to Finland and did.Agreed. Only problem was Laine and Little did not work at all. Little couldn’t make a good play to save his life. Wheeler worked better with Little but he refused to play with him. Had Wheeler played with Little they would have spread out the scoring on two lines.
Speaking of self-serving. Wasn’t it Matthews who refused to play with Kapanen? He didn’t have the balls to say it out loud but “sources close to him” confirmed it.
Laine is the HF whipping boy. Everyone apparently hates a guy with a personality or a willingness to speak his mind. He's not a robot like most players in the league. Because of that, everyone sees him as having some mental deficiency, attitude problem, or simply laziness.
In the season before this, he had 63pts in 68gp in arguably his best all around offensive season and showed tremendous growth. He gets traded to an offensive black hole with worse centres than the Coyotes and he's labeled as some bust that shouldn't be in the NHL. Most of this chatter comes from people that didn't watch one CBJ game last season and stat watch, criticizing Laine for being put in a situation where his strengths weren't being used.