Canadiens Fans Celebrate Landing Patrik Laine, NHL Draft Pick in Blue Jackets Trade

Patrik Laine will make the second fresh start of his career in Montreal.

The Columbus Blue Jackets traded the winger and a 2026 second-round pick to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for defenseman Jordan Harris.

Laine has two seasons at a cap hit of $8.7 million remaining on his contract prior to the trade. According to Aaron Portzline of The Athletic, the Blue Jackets will not retain any of Laine's salary.

The trade was celebrated by Canadiens fans on social media:

Laine is looking to rebound after missing significant time for a third straight season in Columbus.

He was sidelined for 64 games of the 2023-24 season after suffering a broken clavicle in December and entering the NHL/NHLPLA player assistance program in January.

Prior to the injury Laine had recorded six goals and three assists for nine points in 18 games. That production rate would have put him on pace for 41 points, the second-lowest total of his eight-season career, in a full season.

Laine, originally selected by the Winnipeg Jets with the No. 2 pick of the 2016 draft due to the elite wrist shot he had demonstrated in Finnish leagues, started out his career with three straight 30-goal seasons in Winnipeg.

During his sophomore 2017-18 campaign, he scored a career-high 44 goals and led the NHL with 20 power-play strikes.

But Laine wasn't able to repeat that 70-point season in Winnipeg. After being moved down to the Jets' second line during the 2019-20 season and missing the first half of the 2020-21 campaign due to injury, the Jets traded him to the Blue Jackets in January 2021.

The change of scenery didn't result in the resurgence as a 30-goal scorer that Columbus had hoped for, in part because of missed time. Laine has appeared in 174 out of the 297 games the Jackets have played since the trade, as noted by Portzline.

Montreal will now hope it can facilitate Laine's resurgence into one of the NHL's top snipers. The 6-foot-5 winger totaled 110 goals in his first three seasons in the NHL, during which he twice ranked among the league's top 10 scorers and tied for the lead in hat tricks.

Part of Laine's struggles in Columbus were due to the team's lack of high-caliber center talent prior to their acquisition of Adam Fantilli in the 2023 draft.

If the Canadiens can get pucks to Laine in order to feed the one-timer that proved so dangerous in Winnipeg, his goalscoring could give Montreal an extra offensive boost as the team looks to make a playoff push in 2024-25.