One New York Rangers rival in the Metropolitan Division could be trading a star player this offseason. And, perhaps, two other Rangers rivals might have significant interest in acquiring Patrik Laine in a trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Trade rumors are swirling now that Laine was cleared to return from the NHL/NHLPA Players Assistance Program on Friday. The six-time 20-goal scorer had been in the program since January for mental health treatment.
Laine entered the program right before he was due to return from a fractured clavicle sustained in December. He recorded six goals and nine points in 18 games last season before the injury and asked for a trade from the last-place Blue Jackets this offseason.
Since Laine is out of the program, new Blue Jackets general manager Don Waddell can begin fielding trade offers, and interested teams can now speak (with Columbus’ permission) with Laine. Waddell confirmed the Blue Jackets would explore potential deals for the 26-year-old forward, who has missed 107 games over the past three seasons.
“Patrik’s made it clear that, even before all the changes this summer, he would like a fresh start someplace,” Waddell told First Up on TSN 1050 Thursday. “We will look at it when the time comes – which hopefully is very soon – all the options. Now, I can’t rule out any options, even returning here because it takes two teams to make a trade and if there’s not a trade that makes any sense to us, then we have to just deal with what reality is.”
Reality might be that it’s very difficult to trade Laine this late in the offseason when most teams have set their rosters, or at least have done so at the high end.
Any team that acquires Laine would have him for two seasons at a salary cap hit of $8.7 million . He is the third-highest paid Blue Jackets player behind Johnny Gaudreau ($9.75 million) and Zach Werenski ($9.58 million). To make a deal at this late juncture of the offseason, the Blue Jackets likely would have to retain half of his salary, which is something they can afford to do since they’re projected to have nearly $11 million in cap space .
Waddell also indicated he wants at least one player in return that can step into Columbus’ NHL lineup immediately.
Now the question is what’s a realistic destination for Laine, who scored an NHL career-high 44 goals with the Winnipeg Jets in 2017-18 and 30 the following season? He has scored 204 goals and has 388 points in 480 NHL games. When healthy, Laine is a difference maker. So, there are teams that would benefit from taking a chance on him, no doubt.
Since Laine is a natural right wing, he’d be an intriguing, though unaffordable, fit for the Rangers, who right now likely are looking to Reilly Smith to fill their issues on a line with Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad.
Figuring RFA defenseman Ryan Lindgren, who has an Aug. 2 salary arbitration hearing scheduled, gets, say, $4 million annually, that’d leave the Rangers with $1.1 million in cap space. Even if New York included Kaapo Kakko in a possible trade with Columbus, the Rangers still couldn’t afford even half of Laine’s salary.
So, the Rangers, even if they had interest, wouldn’t appear to be a fit to make a Laine trade unless general manager Chris Drury gets very creative.
Laine is very likely going to be traded somewhere. It’s too difficult to imagine Waddell saddling new coach Dean Evason with an unhappy player who’s requested a trade.
Even if the Rangers are out on Laine, it doesn’t mean he won’t end up staying in the Metropolitan Division.
The Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals could be among the logical new destinations. Especially after each team cleared $3.9 million off its cap when the Hurricanes terminated Evgeny Kuznetsov’s contract last week (the teams shared his cap hit after a trade last season).
The Hurricanes have nearly $7 million in remaining space and the Capitals can stash Nicklas Backstrom and his $9.2 million cap hit on LTIR to create room.
The Hurricanes appear set with Seth Jarvis and Martin Necas as their top two right wings. Jarvis saw his goal total increase from 14 to 33 last season and Necas followed up a 28-goal campaign in 2022-23 with 24 goals last season.
Like Lindgren, Necas had an arbitration hearing coming up, but he signed a two-year, $13 million contract ahead of the hearing Monday. So that dipped into Carolina’s cap space, making a Laine trade more difficult.
But there’s a twist here. Necas, like Laine, has asked for a trade. New Carolina GM Eric Tulsky may want to rid himself of a productive, yet unhappy player, and take a big swing with a Laine trade. That is unless Necas sings a different tune after landing this new contract.
Then there is the Waddell factor. Waddell spent the previous six seasons as Hurricanes general manager before leaving in May and played a massive role in putting together a team that made six straight playoff appearances. So, Waddell knows the ins and outs of the Carolina organization, which could make for a good trade fit, if the Hurricanes have interest in Laine.
Washington Capitals
The Capitals were outscored by 37 goals during the regular season in 2023-24. But since being swept by the Rangers in first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, they added Pierre-Luc Dubois and Andrew Mangiapane in trades this offseason to make the offense more formidable.
But you’d have to think that adding Laine would make an even bigger difference for the Capitals. How does a top line of Alex Ovechkin – Dylan Strome – Laine sound? Or maybe there aren’t enough shots for everyone there, so Laine, perhaps, rides shotgun with Dubois on the second line, something that could rejuvenate each player?
The Capitals have done a lot of good things this offseason, including trading for defenseman Jakob Chychrun and goalie Logan Thompson and signing defenseman Matt Roy. Why stop? Keep going. Be all in if you can find a way to trade for Laine.
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