NHL Insider praises Habs after Patrik Laine trade

The Montreal Canadiens have failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs since their surprise run to the Stanley Cup Final in the abbreviated 2020-2021 season, but are they closer now to breaking that streak than they were when the season ended earlier this spring? 

Montreal acquired forward Patrik Laine from the Columbus Blue Jackets earlier this month, giving them a former 40-goal scorer looking to redeem himself after a subpar last few seasons along with a stay in the NHL Player Assistance Program. And this move is drawing positive reviews from NHL analyst Frank Corrado. 

In his mind, the Laine trade represents a low-risk, high reward proposition that could pay dividends for the Habs and their young core of players. 

"I'm not quite there that they're a playoff team yet, but they're taking the steps, and this is part of it," Corrado opined during a recent appearance on TSN." Like you probably bring in Patrik Laine not so much, to just see what he’s got this year, to see if you can turn this around for the long term, and he can join this young nucleus of players moving forward when you eventually do try and make the playoffs." 

"Patrik Laine has a chance to kind of tie himself to this young core group of players in Montreal and see if he can be a part of the solution moving forward and not the problem," Corrado added.

Can Laine gel with the group of Habs players already in place and help lead them on a push toward their first postseason berth since 2021? 

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