Winnipeg Jets: Don't trade Patrik Laine before the 2020-21 season

Patrik Laine’s value could be on the way up for the Winnipeg Jets.

When scrolling through #hockeyrumors Twitter, a name you will often see come up over and over again is Winnipeg Jets‘ right wing, Patrik Laine.

In theory, it makes sense. Laine is about to enter the final year of a two-year, $13.5 million deal, has expressed dissatisfaction with his role on the second line alongside Nikolaj Ehlers and Paul Stastny, and could all but surely garner a pretty impressive return from whatever team opts to pay up for his services.

Well, according to Sportsnet’s Ken Wiebe, it sounds like the Jets know just how good Laine is and aren’t exactly eager to let him walk for nothing.

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Again, theoretically, this tracks. The Jets are coming off four-straight winning seasons under head coach Paul Maurice and feel closer to contenders than a middle-of-the-pack team in desperate need of a rebuild. If the Jets can land another above-average scorer and a top-tier defenseman for Laine then yeah, totally execute a deal and let the occasionally-bearded winger search for greener pastures elsewhere, but is that sort of deal really on the table right now?

No, but the 2021 trade deadline is a completely different story.

Regardless of whether the season starts in December, January, or *shivers* February, this NHL season is going to be weird. Some contender is going to start out slow, a bad team may begin the year on a hot streak, and a scorer of Laine’s caliber will be in high demand. Who knows, the team may even have multiple offers for Laine’s services and could force a bidding war of sorts with some unlucky squad surrendering a king’s ransom for a 22-year-old former second overall pick they perceive to be the missing piece to a championship.

Or hey, maybe it’ll be the Winnipeg Jets who will shock the world and come out as hot as a New Mexican summer, and suddenly everything will be right as rain with Winnipeg’s best and their best player. It may not seem like an emotional reunion is all that imminent, but you know how these things tend to go – a few blowout wins, and suddenly everything is copacetic.

While it seems rather unlikely that Laine will unseat Blake Wheeler, the Jets’ captain, anytime soon, especially since he’s only in the second year of a five-year, $41.25 extension, maybe a bump in playing time, some more PowerPoint looks, or just some extra appreciation would go a long way to returning the team into the former first-round pick’s good graces.

Either way, cutting bait now is just the wrong move.

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There’s an old adage in sports that any trade available at the beginning of the season will be even better at the trade deadline. If I’m Winnepeg Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff, I’m writing that on a piece of paper Sonny Weaver Jr.-style and framing it on my wall until at least spring, as any offer for Patrik Laine will all but surely still be on the table at the deadline – whenever that may be – with the potential for even better deals to be just over the horizon.

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