Canadiens Have Decision To Make With Patrik Laine

The Montreal Canadiens shocked many as they snuck into the playoffs this season. Even though they were eliminated in five games, the team took major strides and their expectations are now to make the playoffs and get deeper every season.

There is a lot of good, young talent on the Canadiens, but also a mix of some veterans in there as well. Even with a young team, there were some inexperienced players getting their first taste of the NHL and are looking to have bigger roles this season. There just isn't enough space in the lineup for that without injuries.

The Canadiens will be looking to make a larger addition at forward and should want to find more playing time for players like Owen Beck and Joshua Roy along with Ivan Demidov expected to be in the lineup for the full season. This leads us to Patrik Laine and what the Canadiens have to decide about his future in Montreal.

He is arguably the streakiest player in the NHL, but that doesn't work for all teams. He was demoted to the fourth line and then taken out of the lineup in the first round series, playing just two games and averaging 11:42 of ice time per game. He can shoot and has his spot on the power play, but his defense lacks in a big way and he's generally one-dimensional.

Laine has a cap hit of $8.7 million AAV, which is the largest on the team by nearly $1 million to Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. The Canadiens could let his final year play out and have that $8.7 million cap hit and roster spot be taken up, dump his contract to a team like the San Jose Sharks or Chicago Blackhawks, or buy him out of his final year.

The least likely seems to be trading him as it will likely cost Montreal, even with him scoring 20 goals and 33 points in 52 games this season, as another team has to want to make the deal as well. With Laine's injury history as well, I don't see him contributing the way the Canadiens hope for throughout an entire season and in playoffs. It's entirely likely they keep him around as a bit of a buffer for their young players, but he would also be a roadblock for them to climb over.

Finally, the buyout seems to be the best course of action. Buying him out of the final year will only give the Canadiens a cap hit for two years, it frees them up in more ways than one next season, and the cap is rising, so the cap hit in two years won't seem as bad. We await a decision as to how Laine is dealt with this summer after how his season ended.