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Blue Jackets' Patrik Laine weighing qualifying offer for next season
Star forward mulling $7.5 million offer for next season; would have one more year left as restricted free agent after signing.
Brian Hedger
Patrik Laine is mulling a new contract.
Laine, 23, is considering whether to sign a $7.5 million qualifying offer from the Blue Jackets. It would make him the team's highest paid player next season and mark an increase of $750,000 from his $6.75 million salary cap value this past season.
The Dispatch has learned the Finnish star forward may sign the deal, which would give him a one-year contract and buy the team's management more time to convince him to sign a longer extension. Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen did not respond to a request for comment. Andy Scott, one of Laine's representatives, declined to comment.
Laine struggled last season after the Winnipeg Jets traded him and forward Jack Roslovic to the Blue Jackets Jan. 23 for Pierre-Luc Dubois and a 2022 third-round pick. He posted career lows in almost every offensive category — finishing with just 12 goals, 12 assists and 24 points in 46 games — but there is significant rebound potential.
After the Jets selected him second overall in 2016, one ahead of Dubois, Laine put up 140 goals, 110 assists and 250 points in four-plus seasons in Winnipeg (306 games). He scored a career-high 44 goals in his second NHL season and topped 30 goals in each of his first three campaigns.
Those numbers earned him a two-year "bridge" contract signed Sept. 29, 2019 worth $13.5 million and carried an average annual value (salary cap hit) worth $6.75 million. He earned $6 million of the deal in the first year of the contract and $7.5 million this past season, which determined the amount of his qualifying offer.
Should Laine sign the qualifying offer, he will have one additional year left of restricted free agency and could eventually become an unrestricted free agent at 25, a remarkably young age to hit the NHL's open market.
Zach Werenski, who counts as a $5 million salary cap hit once his contract is averaged out, is the closest on the roster to Laine in actual income for next season at $7 million.
Getting Laine's signature on the qualifying offer would give Kekalainen cost certainty, not only for budgeting purposes but also for potential trade discussions. Recent reports have said the Blue Jackets are listening to offers for Laine, but no specifics were given.
Laine is in Finland going through an offseason training regimen. He recently made headlines by telling a Finnish media outlet that he was miscast by the Blue Jackets coaching staff last season, specifically former head coach John Tortorella.
Laine's comments, translated to English, were direct.
"Everyone should be given the opportunity to be themselves," he said. "Then, of course, you have to play within the team's system. I think it's stupid not to use my potential. But then it's another matter what the coaches think."
Tortorella declined to comment. The Dispatch has since learned that Brad Larsen, who was promoted this summer from an assistant role to replace Tortorella, was the target of comments made by Laine that led to the star forward getting benched in a 3-2 loss on Feb. 8 against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Larsen declined to comment on Laine, but a source close to the situation said there should be no lingering issues.
The Blue Jackets recently hired assistant coach Pascal Vincent away from the Jets' organization, reuniting Vincent with Roslovic and Laine.
"That wasn't a deciding factor for me at all," Larsen said after Vincent's addition was announced in June. "That's kind of a bonus. He knows who they are and has worked with Jack, and Patty knows him from being around the same organization. I just feel like that's a bonus."
Now, barring an unforeseen trade and assuming Laine signs the offer, Vincent and Larsen will get another spin coaching the talented winger, who should come into next season highly motivated.
bhedger@dispatch.com
@BrianHedger
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