Player Discussion: Patrik Laine - MOD WARNING IN OP

[Laineux]

Where Patrik Laine fits in among the NHL's goal scoring elite - Sportsnet.ca

This was a good article as a whole.

Laine is now stretching the outer boundaries of what we typically expect players to be capable of when it comes to consistently converting their shots into goals — especially when it comes to the combination of volume and efficiency.
Since Laine came into the league last year, no one has had a greater difference between their actual output and what we’d theoretically anticipate from their statistical profile — he comically doubles his expected goal total. In the process, he’s breaking Corsica’s expected goal model:

 

[Garbox]

So the Laine kid is one of the players in the cover of nhl.com

1 month to the playoff.

Kids all over will follow Laine. Face of the Jets going forward.

More like beard of the Jets

 

[Bob E]

It’s got to be the beard.

 

[Do or Die]

Jets management/coaching plan to enable them to......low ball Laine's next contract.
Fail.

 

[Board Bard]

Man, if Maurice only asked him to come to his office in October and asked the same. He'd have at least 100 goals now.

It's not that simple. Can't be. If it was then both Laine and Maurice are brain damaged. Can you find this interview?

I couldn't find the spot on the Jets website and did only a cursory check just now on TSN. I'm not on twitter but maybe the specific interview has been posted there. The interview was right around the time Maurice commented on Laine skating better, so only two or three or four games ago.

In this vid from March 3 at about 1:20 he mentions skating more, so the meeting with Maurice would have happened before this. Maurice also mentions here the skating thing.



Also in this vid from March 2 he mentions skating more, right at the beginning.



I agree that having that conversation with Laine earlier in the season would have helped.

 

[YWGinYYZ]

Jets management/coaching plan to enable them to......low ball Laine's next contract.
Fail.

It doesn't help when Maurice forces Laine to stay out to grab the hatty on the EN a couple games ago.

Laine's individual play has looked a lot stronger recently. He's going to be an incredible handful for defenders in a year or two. Salivating at what's he's going to be able to do on ice when he fills out a bit and his skating naturally gets stronger.

 

[Mestaruus]

This is different

The "secret" revealed?

 

[Do or Die]

Goalie nightmare: a guy who looks like he could go bear hunting, with a switch, and has a ICBM launcher.

 

[kelsier]

Well, that's certainly true, on the other hand I feel generally Laine has been downplayed on these boards this season by many people - not that his game doesn't and didn't have issues, just that they've been somewhat exaggerated. Now after this blazing hot 10 games, he has most goals in the NHL since entering the league. Think that over for a minute, this is a player who just a couple weeks ago needed to drastically improve his skating, play along the boards, general effort level etc. etc. yet he can lift himself to number 1 spot in goals scored over the past two seasons within a 10 game frame. How can he do that if he's been so mediocre and how is this hot streak possible if his game has so many obvious flaws?

And it's not like this hot streak is some isolated incident in his career this far, he had a couple stretches last season when he was hot and played with a similar confidence. The difference to this season is he hasn't took flight for the most part unlike last season - basically he was on a "hot streak" from the WJC to FEL playoffs to WHC to most of his rookie season - yeah there were some lulls and even cold spells in between there, but in general he seemed to be constantly upping his game for the next level of challenge and playing with great confidence. This season that confidence hasn't really been there, I believe there are several reasons for that, some of his own making and some I would argue mostly down to usage. This is the first time this season we are seeing him really hot. You gotta admit he's pretty special to watch during a hot streak

Anyway, I think the best way to honestly evaluate players and their seasons is during the summer, when all the games are played and there's no current emotional investment in how they are doing, then you can mostly forget about the cold spells and hot streaks and just look back at everything as a whole, have some perspective and not judge a player solely based on whether they happen to be hot or cold at the time...

You are right. While I'm sure 95% of the actual people posting here are fans of Laine, some maybe more and some maybe less. Nevertheless, ultimately everyone still wants the same thing. I think and I do hope that the times of clawing one another in a divided fan base are finally over and we can come back together. I do believe as well that a lot of things said about him were exaggerated, while today pretty much the only explanation to his quiet start of the season relates back to a line that could not get their game together, no matter how hard and how long they tried. Of course Laine himself has improved his game as well and rabidly. It has always been his trademark of raising the stakes when getting deeper and deeper into the season. We can disagree about the past but lets not forget why we are here and lets just enjoy the moment. No matter who officially wins what, this kid is a real winner anyway to have been able to raise back from whatever slump he was stuck in. Remarkable to see someone as young to adapt to demands of the NHL and not only comeback, but do that in a way that caught even the biggest fans pants down. 15 more games left at the hands. There is little doubt now that he will coast past Gretzky in the list of teenage goal scorers. No small feat despite of not breaking any records. The ceiling for this young man is through the roof, yet no matter what he lacks in experience, he can already be a huge asset at chasing the Stanley Cup.

 

[Aavco Cup]

Way back in a previous version of this thread in the summertime I made a prediction.

Basically I predicted that Patrik would find that things were not as easy as they had been at the beginning of the season and might struggle. I also predicted that he would eventually find his way sometime after Christmas.

This is a pretty typical pattern for a second year player

 

[204hockey]

How many years is it going to take for Laine to be a best player in a world? Under 3? He's just too good to be contained right now. Im guessing next season totals would be 65g + 40a if he gets to play with Scheifele.

are u serious? lol this is why ppl laugh at laine fans. if he ever hits 65 i will buy you a pair of steel toe boots and you can kick me in the balls. 50 goals is reasonable 65 ? ya doubt anyone gets that any more in my life time

 

[PhilJets]

Go JetsGo Laine!

Winning ia fun!!!

 

[PhilJets]

Group hug

You are right. While I'm sure 95% of the actual people posting here are fans of Laine, some maybe more and some maybe less. Nevertheless, ultimately everyone still wants the same thing. I think and I do hope that the times of clawing one another in a divided fan base are finally over and we can come back together. I do believe as well that a lot of things said about him were exaggerated, while today pretty much the only explanation to his quiet start of the season relates back to a line that could not get their game together, no matter how hard and how long they tried. Of course Laine himself has improved his game as well and rabidly. It has always been his trademark of raising the stakes when getting deeper and deeper into the season. We can disagree about the past but lets not forget why we are here and lets just enjoy the moment. No matter who officially wins what, this kid is a real winner anyway to have been able to raise back from whatever slump he was stuck in. Remarkable to see someone as young to adapt to demands of the NHL and not only comeback, but do that in a way that caught even the biggest fans pants down. 15 more games left at the hands. There is little doubt now that he will coast past Gretzky in the list of teenage goal scorers. No small feat despite of not breaking any records. The ceiling for this young man is through the roof, yet no matter what he lacks in experience, he can already be a huge asset at chasing the Stanley Cup.

 

[Ducky10]

Man, if Maurice only asked him to come to his office in October and asked the same. He'd have at least 100 goals now.

It's not that simple. Can't be. If it was then both Laine and Maurice are brain damaged. Can you find this interview?

Yeah, something tells me there was more specifics to the conversation than that. I don't think anyone is stupid enough to just think he needed to simply skate.

You think?

 

[Ippenator]

are u serious? lol this is why ppl laugh at laine fans. if he ever hits 65 i will buy you a pair of steel toe boots and you can kick me in the balls. 50 goals is reasonable 65 ? ya doubt anyone gets that any more in my life time

How you can be so sure of this? I wouldnt really claim that he would for sure get 65 goals in his prime. But I have also noticed that people announcing so easily his ceiling on the basis of what most players have been capable of doing lately, will usually be eating crow with their strict estimations.

What if he even hits around 50 this season as a quite raw 19 year old, and with less than 17 minutes of ice time per game? If he could with all these issues already hit 50 or at least close to it, what makes you believe that he couldn’t get clearly more goals in his prime, when playing 20 minutes per game and playing the whole season in a line that would function well?

It’s like you are saying that he is already in his prime as a player,
which he definitely is not yet. Most probably he is 2 or 3 years away from his prime, and he will still develop a lot with his skating and timing.

I’m not claiming that he will definitely get 65 goals for his best season in his prime, but I think that with the knowledge that we already have of him, it is pretty foolish to claim for sure that he will never reach 65 goals.

So what if only Ovechkin did this kind of a thing during the last two decades, and no other player could do it? Now we are talking about a very unique player in Patrik Laine, so seriously there is no use to start comparing him to regular top goal scorers from the past, as none of them have had the shot that he has, and none of them were scoring at the pace that he is doing already as a raw and young player.

There’s no reason to also expect that his development is stalling any time soon, or that he would even start to regress. On the contrary, there’s all the logical reasons to expect that he developes still a lot during the next 2 or 3 years. Fun times ahead!

 

[jetsforever]

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but in the past 10 games, Laine has as many goals as the St. Louis Blues

 

[204hockey]

How you can be so sure of this?

im not but the probability of it happening are pretty absurd imo. 65 in this day and age means everything as to go right and the universe has to allign. wich makes it more likely that he doesn hit 65+

i am onr of the biggest laine fans around the joy i get out of watching him score is almost on par with watching my neices and nephews not as meaningful obv but a joy none the less. i just prefer to have realistic expectations and enjoy the progress

 

[Halberdier]

are u serious? lol this is why ppl laugh at laine fans. if he ever hits 65 i will buy you a pair of steel toe boots and you can kick me in the balls. 50 goals is reasonable 65 ? ya doubt anyone gets that any more in my life time

It's still possible, though improbable that he hits 50 this season and probably with the lowest TOI/GP in the history of NHL, if that means anything to you. He is still a teenager, younger than Ovie ever was in the NHL.

It's [mod] to think that when hitting his prime AND having proper TOI AND Ovie like PP usage AND fitting high quality linemates he never could hit 65 goals. Even this season he is putting up goals in greater goals/hours rate than Ovie ever did.

That 65 goals is of course awfully high number and won't be easy or granted for anyone, but it's safe to see that there is currently just one guy in the NHL who might do that when entering his prime (in 3-6 years from now). Ovie is too old for that already and somehow I don't think AM is doing that but since he already hit 40 on his rookie season, you can't be sure.

I feel sorry for your balls already. I don't think it happens next season, but I would not bet my balls against even that.

 

[Duke749]

It’s not [silly] to think he won’t hit 65 considering 60 has only been hit twice in like the last two decades. Hell 65 has only been done 24 times in the history of the NHL. It’s possible but I wouldn’t say likely at all.

 

[Asiantuntija]

Patrik Laine is generational talent and his goalscoring abilities will turn new page in history. At least 75 goals in his best season, mark my words.

 

[StatisticsAddict99]

Patrik Laine is generational talent and his goalscoring abilities will turn new page in history. At least 75 goals in his best season, mark my words.

If Laine would had started the season with the confidence and overall play he has had recently he’s likely have scored 55-65(based purely off my opinion) but there’s no way Laine or anyone can score 70+ in any season unless the NHL implements new rulings to make scoring easier.

 

[jetsfanpei]

Might as well say he’s gonna score 100! Mark my words

 

[Andon]

If you look at era adjusted goals, Ovechkins 65 was the second greatest scoring season of all time, even slightly better than the best seasons of Lemieux and Gretzky (both of which were more playmakers and assist machines than Laine will ever be, though). So yeah, Ovie's 65 is huge. But then again, if Stamkos can score 60 then I can't see why Laine couldn't score 66. It "just" requires a season where he gets hot very early, plays more MPG than he does now, and has suitable line mates and PP1 throughout the season.

 

[Kaako Kappo]

If you look at era adjusted goals, Ovechkins 65 was the second greatest scoring season of all time, even slightly better than the best seasons of Lemieux and Gretzky (both of which were more playmakers and assist machines than Laine will ever be, though). So yeah, Ovie's 65 is huge. But then again, if Stamkos can score 60 then I can't see why Laine couldn't score 66. It "just" requires a season where he gets hot very early, plays more MPG than he does now, and has suitable line mates and PP1 throughout the season.

 

[Plural]

I've always wondered why Bobby Hull's best season never registers on adjusted goals list. Because it's lacking from these adjusted lists, it kind of shows there's problems with the adjusting.