Dustin Byfuglien appears to call out Patrik Laine on the ice.

The Winnipeg Jets haven't had the best of times with star goal scorers since they rejoined the ranks of the National Hockey League and it is starting to look like there may be another issue brewing within their locker room with one of their star players. 

Over the week-end it was revealed that star forward Patrik Laine would be on the receiving end of a major demotion from head coach Paul Maurice when Laine was spotted practicing on the organizations fourth line ahead of a tough match up against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night. The move was a shocking one largely due to the fact that Laine's skill set does not feature the qualities you normally expect to see in a fourth line player, but a message in practice doesn't always translate to an actual demotion during a live game. 

In Laine's case however it very much did and when the Jets faced off against the Leafs he was indeed on the organization's fourth line. Now to be clear Laine maintained his position on the Jets power play but it was nonetheless a major demotion for a player that was a very serious contender for the Rocket Richard trophy just one season ago. 

Although we have received no official word from the Jets on this matter I believe that it's rather safe to speculate that Paul Maruice has not been happy with the level of effort that he has seen from his young star forward. Laine's production at 5 on 5 has been underwhelming this season and as a result he has been on the ice for more goals against this season than goals for, and it sounds like the coaching staff may not be the only ones getting frustrated with the lack of compete from Laine. 

During the aforementioned match up with the Maple Leafs there was a moment in the final minute of the game where veteran defenseman Dustin Byfuglien's frustration with Laine appeared to boil over, resulting in Byfuglien audibly yelling at Laine on the ice. The Jets were in their own zone and down by a goal when Byfuglien attempted to leave the puck behind for Laine, seemingly in an effort to give the Jets star a chance to make a play in the final seconds of the game, but to Byfuglien's dismay Laine simply stood still in the corner and never made any effort to move towards the puck. 

Byfuglien was instead forced to go back for the puck himself and eventually pushed it towards Laine a second time, prompting him to yell at the young Jet, clearly frustrated at what had just happened.

"You gotta move," Byfuglien could be heard screaming at Laine after the play.

Upon watching the video replay it's really hard to blame Byfuglien for being frustrated at the lack of effort, and it's made even worse when you consider that this is in the final seconds of a one goal game, a game in which your coach has just tried to send you a message by sending you down to the fourth line. 

Now it's too early for Jets fans to hit the panic button, but the fan base has seen this kind of behavior before from another talented goal scorer in Evander Kane. Kane's eventual downfall came when he rubbed his own teammates the wrong way, most notably locker room leader Dustin Byfuglien, and the Jets certainly do not want to see Patrik Laine going down a similar path. 

[pub]