Blue Jackets Only Win Patrik Laine Trade If They Win His Heart

Jarmo Kekalainen doesn’t want to be in the same place one year from now.

By next January, the Columbus Blue Jackets general manager can’t be sitting in front of the media explaining again why he had to trade another superstar player, regardless of the amount of talent he might be getting back.

Patrik Laine, who’s signed for this season at $6.75 million but becomes a restricted free agent in the upcoming offseason, has to be wooed. Kekalainen didn’t acquire the 22-year-old sniper, along with Jack Roslovic from Winnipeg for disgruntled center Pierre-Luc Dubois, in order for him to force his way out of town a few months from now.

There’s hope the two Finns can come to an understanding and Laine could become a superstar in Columbus for the next decade.

“Like I said, we’ll start the long-term process, building a long-term relationship with Patrik Laine as soon as he gets here,” Kekalainen said not long after swinging the trade Saturday. “And I think we’ve already started, I spent a good amount of time on the phone with him, and that was one subject that I told him that I wanted to build this into a long-term relationship with him. And so we’ve started and it’s going to start once he gets here even further, but the main priority is just to get him in the lineup and get him playing and helping us.”

Kekalainen knows Laine a little bit from when the player and manager were together with Team Finland at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. The GM also said he consulted former Blue Jackets player Mark Letestu, who was Laine’s teammate in Winnipeg. Laine received a glowing recommendation. The Blue Jackets had to do their home work because after all — like Dubois in Columbus — Laine had asked out of Winnipeg.

The Blue Jackets probably didn’t need much convincing about Laine’s off-ice demeanor considering they had to be salivating over his potential as a scorer. He broke into the league at 18 and popped in 36 goals. He followed that up with 44 more as a sophomore. The past two seasons saw him drop to 30 goals in 2018-19 and 28 in the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season. Still his ability to put the puck in the net has never been questioned and there’s no doubt he’ll give the Blue Jackets a look they’ve rarely had.

Last season, despite a strong all-around year that saw them advance beyond the preliminary round to the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, they ranked 27^th in both goals for and power-play percentage.

This season, they’re 1-for-11 on the power play.

“Patrik Laine’s just a pure goal scorer,” Kekalainen said. “… I’ve known him since he was 16 years old, watched him play in Finland, won the championship there. MVP of the World Junior when they won gold and coming into the National Hockey League and having done what he’s done, and he’s still pretty young.

“He’s an excellent power-play player. And often people think of him as a shooter, which he is a great shooter, but he’s also a great passer and weapon for our power play that we have not had before.”

Kekalainen noted that when Laine was picked No. 2 overall by Winnipeg in 2016, the Blue Jackets were picking No. 3, where they selected Dubois. At the time, “we would’ve given a lot to move up from three to two,” he said.

Well now the Blue Jackets have given up a lot for Laine, namely Dubois, who’s still developing into a large two-way force at center. They’re banking on their delayed marriage with Laine to be more than a fling, and they better hope they can convince him to be part of the solution in Columbus rather than yet another problem. It’s hard to build championship teams with star players asking out every year, and it’s impossible to win a title without a star.

For the Blue Jackets to win this trade, Kekalainen is going to have to win Laine’s commitment to his new city.