3 teams want Laine?

 Pen’s, Habs and Utah HC all want Laine.

Now in this blog post we are looking at a couple of teams who may have interest in Blue Jackets forward Patrick Laine, now I have talked about this recently on my YouTube Channel but it sounds like Laine who hasn’t worked out overly well in Columbus ever since arriving there in the trade from Winnipeg might be moved as with him being injured all the time in Columbus he hasn’t been able to get back to his 40 goal form, so it seems like a fresh start is coming for him and there seems to be 3 teams at least who may be willing to trade tor him even with his injury history and those teams are:

Montreal Canadiens 

First up is the Montreal Canadians, I've seen this be brought up before even Laine and the Jackets were mutually working together to try and get him a fresh start, the Canadians are trying to look for a big splash this offseason and they could definitely look at a guy like Laine, he's on the younger side of things and I know he still has 2 years left at a $8.7 Million dollar cap hit and the Canadians may have to ask the Jackets to eat some money or I could see the Jackets try and maybe get a guy like Gallagher or Anderson instead of having to retain money on him and try and take one of them off the Canadian hands, I mean both those guys make I think $5.5 million if I'm correct maybe Gallagher makes $6.5 not exactly sure but it will be similar money for the two teams and it would still be a little bit more on the Canadian side to take, but still I think something like that could work for the Columbus Blue Jackets where they offload Laine and give him his fresh start he needs and are able to get solid veteran guy like a Gallagher or Anderson who can fit in the middle six well and for the Canadians it could offload one of the contracts that they're looking to offload right now in Gallagher or Anderson and it could also help them bringing a solid top six sniper in Laine who I think in Montreal in the right position could be back to being a extremely good goal scorer for the Canadians so it'll be interesting to see about that but it does seem like the Habs do have interest in Laine and they may want to try and add him to their lineup. 

Aaron Doster USA Today Sports

Pittsburgh Penguins

I've also seen the Pittsburgh Penguins name pop up in Laine rumours, I think this is a little bit less likely given their already high cap situation and they would definitely have to try and work something out to make it work cap wise but I could see Laine be a really good fit in Pittsburgh, I mean put him on a line that already has guys like maybe Malkin or a Crosby and put him with a good playmaker and he could turn back into a fantastic goal scorer in Pittsburgh, so like I said I'm not sure what sort of a trade package could go back to Columbus for Laine, I mean I wouldn’t be overly shocked if a guy like Reilly Smith could be a guy who goes to Columbus to try and offset the cap to try and make it work, but it does seem like Pittsburgh may have some serious interest in the Jackets Laine and I think that's reasonable given the fact they could use another goal scorer to help the teams middle six. 

Utah HC

And lastly another team who I saw on the 32 podcast be linked to Laine was the Utah franchise, now Jeff Marek was trying to speak it into existence but I could definitely see Utah have interest, Laine could be a really good fit there as we know the Utah Franchise is trying to add some more big pieces to try and improve this team and Laine could be a really good piece there to work with some of the younger guys and the Utah franchise not only has some solid trade chips that they could dangle to Columbus but they also have a plethora of cap space and might now even need the Jackets to take a bad contract or money back, so that may make Utah a really good trade partner for the Jackets and Laine could get a solid top 6 role with the Utah Franchise, so I wouldn’t be shocked if Utah might even be one of the favourites to land Laine.

So it seems like Utah, Pittsburgh and Montreal may have some major interest in Patrick Laine and it seems like those teams could all be big players in Laine going over the next couple of days so this will be a situation we have to watch out for over the next few days.