Patrik Laine now available for a trade

...But is he a fit for Pittsburgh?

The Penguins pulled the biggest trade of the summer last season fairly late in the cycle with the early August acquisition of Erik Karlsson. 2024’s big late summer target is now officially open for business with the news that Columbus forward Patrik Laine has exited the NHLPA’s Player Assistance program and is available to talk to NHL teams about his future.

Another wrinkle in the mix is that Laine is recovering from shoulder surgery. Due to various reasons from injuries like a reported concussion and the shoulder and the assistance program that he had been in since late January, Laine only played 18 games last season and just 73 since the start of the 2022-23 season.

Laine has asked for a trade out of Columbus, and it is known that the Blue Jackets and new general manager Don Waddell are interested in granting that wish so that all parties can move on.

From a far enough view, the Penguins ought to be at least interested in Laine in some regard. They do have a hole on the roster at wing after trading Reilly Smith away for a draft pick. The team reportedly made an offer for free agent Vladimir Tarasenko, but the player opted to go to Detroit on a two-year deal.

Upon closer inspection, the fit for Laine and Pittsburgh begins to fall apart. Laine carries a $8.7 million (hey now!) cap hit for the next two seasons. Pittsburgh has about $3.5 million in current available cap space.

Beyond that, on trade cost preference, it sounds like a sticky fit for Pittsburgh and Columbus to align. As Columbus writer Aaron Portzline put it earlier this month:

Waddell has said he wants to make a “hockey trade” for Laine, meaning he’d like to move Laine for a player who interests the Blue Jackets without eating a portion of Laine’s contract. But the last two weeks [NHL draft and start of free agency passing] have made such a move dramatically more difficult.

That leaves the Penguins with little that would likely be of interest to CBJ, since taking on a 31-year old coming off a down season with four more years on his contract in Rickard Rakell wouldn’t be a wise idea (and Rakell could potentially squelch that possibility on his own with his 8-team trade clause).

The money almost aligns if Columbus would take Michael Bunting, who only has two years left on his deal, but Bunting was great for the Pens down the stretch and not likely be a player the team would want to trade. Not to mention that such a swap doesn’t necessarily leave Pittsburgh any better off if they were to trade one top-six winger for another.

Portzline has also noted that while CBJ is open to “playing nice” with Laine’s request, if nothing comes up that meets their needs it wouldn’t be out of the range of possibilities that Laine could remain in Columbus for the start of the season and not be immediately traded simply to trade him.

Given the lack of cap space and a shift to acquire future assets instead of trading them away, it doesn’t look like Laine to the Pens aligns very well at this juncture.

That said, it’s tough to predict what Kyle Dubas might do. It has been a relatively quiet an unimpressive off-season in Pittsburgh, and to some degree Dubas still talks about wanting the Pens to be strong in the immediate future — even if several of his transactions have pointed further into the future than trying to create the most competitive team possible.

Laine, at 26, would still be young enough to conceivably be in the team’s future, however with his injuries and unavailability, he represents a risky target. Unlike last summer, stepping up to the plate and taking a major risk doesn’t seem to be in the Penguins’ M.O these days.