With the rumbling out of David Pagnotta’s: The Fourth Period talking about a contract dispute with the Winnipeg Jets. As a New Jersey Devils fan I have always been a fan of Laine’s since his draft year. He was once touted as an Alexander Ovechkin type of player with his goal scoring abilities. However it seems the way Ray Shero wants to build around Taylor Hall to re-sign long term that an offer sheet for Laine would be totally worthwhile.
The Devils can surrender the necessary upcoming 2020, 2021 Devils 1st rounders, a second round pick, and a third (Devils own picks, not someone else’s draft picks) it takes to sign an offer sheet. If you’re trying to envision a New Jersey Devils roster with Patrik Laine after a possible trade, this is how it would look like if it occurred.
Hall-Hughes-Laine
Bratt-Hischier-Palmieri
Wood-Zajac-Anderson/Coleman
Agostino-Boyle/McLeod-Seney
That’s not a shabby lineup. However signing a guy like Tyler Myers whom was a teammate of Laine’s in Winnipeg would be an interesting connection if Myers is Shero’s worst case scenario.
However I’m still keen on trading for a defenseman. David Pagnotta mentions Laine is looking near $10 million which I think is the cap hit ceiling at most but I can see an AAV $9,500,000 USD as fair market price. It would be similar to what Alexander Ovechkin had since the 2008-09 offseason ending in 2021. Ovi signed that as a young sniper, which is what Laine is right now.
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The HHL Line would provide speed, skill, and lots of dangerous sniping on opposing team goalies. If Jack Hughes can be the absolute fast, attacking, and supportive playmaker he is in nano seconds distributing a pass to Laine’s tape and using Hall as a decoy this lineup can be very lethal.
Having Patrik Laine playing in a medium sized market here in New Jersey would allow him to be himself. With the help of Hall, Hughes, Hischier, Palmieri around as guys that can build a solid top 6 line. Meanwhile the Wood-Zajac-Anderson line will be the forechecking line that will bring opposing teams defenses with funny bounces, and bury goals on net.
If Ray Shero does sign Laine he brings an extra skilled, super talented winger on the right side that the Devils can roll three lines that can score more on a daily basis. Also while guys like Ty Smith coming onto the scene this upcoming 2019-20 season you can be very sure these defensemen will be very hungry in feeding Laine a lot of passes to win these big games.
Not only having Ray Shero trying to pluck Laine from Winnipeg would be a really good bet. It would be the best bet since trading Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson. It is not very often the number two pick in a recent draft falls into a situation where a bunch of players on his team are going for big contracts. But If Kevin Cheveldayoff of the Jets can’t re-sign Laine, this would be a nice gain for them in getting future picks from the Devils. This kind of move could add more job security to Ray Shero, and helping bolster John Hynes’ team. Plus, the New Jersey Devils have over $35.6 Million with an $83 million cap.
Bolstering the Devils offense like that can not only bring a sense of comfort for John Hynes to pencil in two sharp shooters on the right wing, but also have more clarity for line pairings. There would be a lot less questions for Amanda Stein to write about via Twitter when she reports the line combos for Devils games. For me this would be great for Ray Shero to then focus on adding a more solid defender that can strengthen the New Jersey Devils defense corps, and to help this team win more games in the near and long term.