He's already much more consistent than he was in 2018-19 - last year Laine's worst month was still 7 pts in 12 games. The Jackets can live with that if his hot streaks are hot enough.
No. Jones is pretty clumsy on the PP, great shot but very little deception. Werenski can break a defense with his fakes but he's a LHS so it's harder for him to tee up Laine from the point. There are great shooters like Bjorkstrand that might be able to do a Scheifele impression in the bumper position. At the point the Jackets don't have a RHS equivalent of Buff, or even Pionk.
Why Edmonton hasn't acquired more of them is a bit boggling. I think this year Holland just wildly overestimated Turris.
Columbus really isn't short on guys who can score 30-40 pts in middle six C roles, that's why it does feel more like a 1 for 1 to me. Supposedly Jarmo was really insistent going back months that it had to be a Laine+Roslovic 2 for 1 deal. Perhaps it is just the need for some kind of asset to offset the high risks/demands that come with Laine, or perhaps he sees something more in Roslovic.
He got more than a one shift "shot higher up the lineup" last year. He was 2RW for most of the year playing with great 5v5 players like Ehlers and Wheeler. Roslovic showed no scoring touch. 50 points seems unlikely to me.
PLD will be happy. I don't think Laine cares about city or any of that but he knows his destiny is to be a 50-60 goal guy and he won't settle long term anywhere unless he feels he is in a place to do that. I doubt he asks out of Columbus any time soon but it should be a lot of short term deals for Laine, wherever he goes, until he can get the scoring platform and the 8-figure salary that matches his ambitions.
I agree with all these comments, you hit them all on the head IMO.
Jack has proven to be a 3rd liner winger......never have succeeded at centre in the NHL over any large sample size, and didn't really take advantage of his chance on the 2nd line wing most of last year producing only 29 points. But he is a solid 3rd line winger, maybe 3C and can move up in the lineup to fill in for injuries as needed and not look totally out of place. He's better offensively then he is defensively......not saying he's bad defensively, I would say he's average.
Laine properly supported by systems and players around him can become a PPG player and produce 40+ goals per year. I don't think Laine has the skating or engine to ever produce 100+ points like OV. Laine doesn't drive play, but is an elite sniper. Ideally a team has a centre and the other winger who can drive play and forecheck to get Laine the puck in shooting positions. Laine is more effective on the rush. On the PP he is effective in his spot at the top of the circle for the one timer which is lethal.......getting him the puck to shoot is the hard part. Teams adjusted after the first couple years to defend the pass to Laine on the PP, so you need ideally a PP Dman who can get that pass to him very fast for the one timer before defenders can block the pass or get in front of it to block it or the big across the ice pass through the seem like Wheeler used to do a lot, but often was a low % success rate after the first couple years bc teams got their sticks in the passing lanes so much. I'll be curious how CBJ create schemes/systems on the PP to get him the puck. Jets team & players I found often defaulted passing Laine too much instead of taking the shot themselves both on the PP & 5vs5, this year (yes small sample size so far) we're seeing former linemates (& new team systems especially on the PP) shooting more and being very successful doing it. So the risk I'm saying is hopefully CBJ don't fall into that trap also of over passing to Laine, when you do you often the pass fails or give it to Laine in a less high risk shooting position to shoot or defenders know the pass is coming to him so cheat to defend it or to block the shot. While I'm not a fan of Torts as a person, I do acknowledge he's a good coach so I'm interested in seeing how he plans to get him the puck and what types of players he makes his line mates, PP systems he uses, etc.
Give Laine that support on his line and PP and he will develop into a guy who can produce 75-85 points & 40+ goals moving forward. I won't comment on Laine defensively, everyone knows he isn't a defensive stalwart and never will be.....albeit last year he started to improve in that area some. I can't ever see Laine scoring less then 30 goals in a full season regardless of his team mates or systems.......Laine can score from any place in the offensive zone, his favorite of course is the top of the circle OV one timer. Good luck, he is a sniper no doubt.