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Originally Posted by Fidatelo
It's definitely got that potential. He clearly 'lost' the trade in the sense that we gave up the best player, sent out another NHL player while getting a 3rd round pick back, AND ate salary.
On the other hand, a center is more important to a team than a winger overall, and also we have other excellent scoring wingers to compensate somewhat for the loss of Laine. And Roslovic was dead to us, so really it's not much of a loss even if he is technically worth more than a 3rd.
After having some time to calm down I am far less upset about the trade itself than I am in the fact that it ever came to this with Laine. 5 years ago we drafted a weird dude from Finland that just wanted to score goals and play video games with his best buddy Ehlers. Somehow in attempting to mold him into a more complete franchise player the Jets screwed that up to the point of him wanting out. I don't know if it was fights with teammates, disagreements with the coach, or contract negotiations, or maybe all of it. But ultimately Chevy didn't do enough to smooth out whatever was bothering Laine, and that to me is a major failing.
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I'm not convinced that Laine is, or turns out to be, the best player in the trade, with the caveat that I include the ability to play centre as part of the assessment.
Laine is certainly the better goal scorer and unquestionably has more star power. He sells tickets and jerseys and that also counts for something. But he is atrocious defensively and doesn't generate scoring chances. Sure, he could score 55-60 playing with a guy like Nathan McKinnon but absent that, I really think he's closer to a consistent 30-35 goal scorer. Which is great, if you bring something else to the table.
I'm assuming he wanted to be paid like the guy who scored 80 goals his first two seasons and not 58 goals the past two. This would have been a foolish mistake.
And ultimately, if the goal was to make the Jets a better team both this year and going forward, I think the trade accomplished this.
At 5-on-5, a top four over the next few years that involves some pairing of Connor-Scheifele and Dubois-Ehlers is far, far better than Connor-Scheifele and Ehlers-Laine.
None of this even includes the fact that Dubois has an extra year of team controlled salary.
Roslovic doesn't bother me at all. He was likely going to be lost to Seattle anyway (Jets can only protect Wheeler, Connor, Scheifele, Ehlers, Laine/Dubois, Lowry, Copp), so a 3rd rounder back is a good return if that's what it took to make the trade happen.