Report: Columbus Blue Jackets, Patrik Laine have mutual interest in seeking trade
Don Waddell is still trying to speak with Patrik Laine, but the Blue Jackets' new president of hockey operations/general manager appears to have an answer now to a question he’s been asking his inherited players this offseason: Do you want to be here?
More: Columbus Blue Jackets' Don Waddell on trades: ‘For the right price, everything is in play'
Waddell, who became the Jackets’ new hockey boss in May, told the Dispatch Thursday that he's still trying to speak with Laine personally. Communications between the player or player's agent and team may have occurred prior to Waddell taking over his dual management roles with the Blue Jackets, and those talks may have led to a Wednesday report by TSN that Laine doesn’t want to stay in Columbus.
The TSN report said Laine and the team have agreed to seek trade options to give the Finnish forward a fresh start. Laine’s agent, Andy Scott, didn't return a message from the Dispatch seeking comment and/or confirmation of the reporting, which also said Laine recently underwent “minor” shoulder surgery.
Waddell responded to an inquiry about the report Thursday morning, and he also spoke with the Dispatch last week about Laine, 26, who's been in the NHL/NHL Players Association’s player assistance program since Jan. 28 for undisclosed reasons.
“I want people who want to be here,” Waddell said last week. “That’s where it starts. That’s just a conversation I want to have. It doesn’t mean they’re going to go anywhere if they say, ‘No,’ because you’ve got to have two things for a trade. You’ve got to have a trading partner and you also need value ... what you think is equal value to who you’re trying to trade, regardless of who the player is.”
Trading Laine for what the Blue Jackets feel is fair value could be challenging, if that's the route taken. He has two years remaining on a contract with an $8.7 million charge against the NHL’s salary cap and hasn’t produced up to that lofty number in the deal’s first two years. Laine played just 18 games this season due to injuries and missing the final two months after being sent home from a road trip to start the NHL/NHLPA program.
More: Don Waddell getting to know Columbus Blue Jackets better, including coach Pascal Vincent
“Laine is one (big issue) that everybody knows about, so there’s no hiding behind that,” Waddell said last week. “We all know that he’s a hell of a player, so the first question people are going to ask me if that name comes up is, ‘What’s going on with him?’ And I tell them, ‘I’m working on that.’ ”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Report says Patrik Laine, Columbus Blue Jackets agree to seek trade
