Blue Jackets Will Probably Have To Retain Money in a Patrik Laine Trade
Columbus Blue Jackets writer for The Athletic Aaron Portzline joined TSN Radio in Montreal to discuss Patrik Laine and what it would cost a team to acquire him.
** NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Host: “Do you have any idea what the ask would be from Columbus?”
NHL Rumors: There Will be Interest in Patrik Laine
Aaron Portzline: “You know, I don’t think they can be too specific, to be honest with you. I don’t think it’s an immediate roster player which could help their cause. It’s probably some combination of picks and prospects. I think the bigger hitch is going to be how much of the $8.7 million that he’s owed this year and next. Will Columbus have to swallow to get him moved along?
I’m not saying it won’t be a roster player but the way that the Blue Jackets are aligned right now, with the young kids coming in, with the players that they’ve added in free agency they don’t definitely have to get forward back in that trade.
So there’s some flexibility there. I think it’ll be different with every team they talk to, to just what those teams have to offer, how they’re aligned, etc.”
Host: “But you do think there would be a willingness to eat some of that money to make the trade more palatable?”
Portzline: “I think there has to be I mean, and I believe Don Waddell is there too and he had said it’s not him denying that they’re gonna take some money back or that they’re willing to or will have to be willing to. He has said he wants to make a hockey trade. Of course, he does. Of course, he does.
NHL Rumors: A Patrik Laine Trade is Not an Easy Thing to Do?
I think the chances of that were probably not great, even before the draft and before free agency, now, I think you’ve probably taken some teams out of the market for Laine with the players that they added either during the draft or in free agency. But he said to me just the other day he still gets phone calls from teams that are interested, wondering what’s the latest, where this is going? And there’s really not much he can tell him because the player is still in the program.”
