Columbus Blue Jackets forward Patrik Laine has requested a trade and one trade pitch sends the star forward to the Montreal Canadiens.

Laine was cleared to return from the NHL/NHLPA Players Assistance Program on July 26, and once that happened the rumors of a potential trade started to heat up. The website PuckPedia has a new tool called PuckGM that lets users create their own trades, and one user proposed a multi-player deal for Montreal to acquire Laine.

• Mike Matheson
• Josh Anderson

Laine has two years left on the four-year $34.8 million deal he signed with Columbus in 2022. The former second-overall pick has struggled to stay healthy and play consistent with the Blue Jackets which has caused him to ask for a trade.

In Montreal, Laine would give the Canadiens another goal-scoring option. Montreal’s rebuild looks to be mostly done and acquiring Laine would give the team a better chance of making the playoffs in the 2024-25 NHL season.

Columbus, meanwhile, gets Josh Anderson who has three years left on his deal and can help replace Laine. Anderson, like Laine, could use a change of scenery as he has struggled as of late with the Canadiens, as last season he recorded just 9 goals and 11 assists for 20 points in 78 games.

It would also be a return to Columbus as Anderson began his NHL career with the Blue Jackets, spent parts of six seasons with the team, and had a lot of success with the club.

Mike Matheson, meanwhile, is a solid NHL defenseman who could be on the top pairing or the second pairing for Columbus. Matheson has two years left on his deal, but he could be flipped at the deadline if the Blue Jackets are out of playoff contention at the deadline to get prospects or picks.

Blue Jackets Need The Right Deal to Move Laine

Although Laine has requested a trade from the Blue Jackets, Columbus general manager Don Wadell says they won’t trade him just to trade him.

Instead, Waddell says the Blue Jackets need to get a good return that makes sense for their hockey team.

“If the options are limited or there’s no options that make any sense, then we’ll have to deal with that,” Waddell said on June 20… “You know, our hope is that we wouldn’t have to hold money. We want to make a hockey trade if we can and certainly exhaust every opportunity and every team that potentially has interest.”

Laine was drafted second overall by the Winnipeg Jets in the 2016 NHL draft.

Canadiens Focused on Building Through the Draft

Montreal has had a quiet offseason as the team didn’t sign any notable free agents.

However, the Canadiens were active in signing several key players to long-term deals, as Montreal signed Kaiden Guhle, Arber Xhekaj, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Justin Barron to multi-year deals.

“We won’t do something that will provide a short-term gain at the expense of our long-term plan,” Hughes said on July 1 after the Habs did not sign anyone notable when free agency opened. “We weren’t going into this off-season saying: Wow, we could get a player here and win the Stanley Cup.”

The Canadiens will open its 2024-25 NHL season at home on Oct. 9 against the Toronto Maple Leafs.