The Patrik Laine Trade by Edward Stefaniak

​The Patrik Laine Trade is going to be devastating for the Jackets. Absolutely devastating. The third round pick can be thrown out the window. Those are just magic beans. Dubois’ father is a professional coach and yet he couldn’t handle the tough coaching style of John Tortorella. And Laine had a tough time dealing with internal bullying from the Jets locker room. Imagine how devastated he will be when Torts straight up calls him a “pussy” for not blocking a shot. I’m not saying Laine is a “pussy” by any means, since he has shown that he is a tough player on the puck at times. What I am saying is that Laine will not block shots because he just isn’t that type of player. Laine will give you goals, but he will not show up on the penalty kill or in key defensive situations. 

    With the addition of Roslovic the Jackets have a “budding young star” (quotes very intentional) with .37 points per game. Now that isn’t horrendous, but with the fact that he refused to re-sign with Winnipeg, and the added distraction that causes in the locker room, players around the league feel like he won’t make a good teammate. On top of all this he is going to be playing with his hometown team in Columbus, Ohio: the city that God forgot. This is going to be a lot of pressure on him seeing that all of his friends growing up and his entire family is now going to be watching since there's nothing else to do in Ohio.

    The Jets get a good young player in Dubois who is actually a budding young star and has a lot to prove. His father works in the Jets system for the Manitoba Moose. The ease of moving to a city where your father lives (and the ease of moving away from John Torterella) is a tremendous weight off his shoulders. I am in no way knocking Torterella. I think he is a wonderful coach, but I do believe that his players need to buy into his system and his persona to succeed. Dubois was just not going to work with Torts. That last shift with the Jackets proved that. However, in Winnipeg I believe they found what is now considered a gem in the rough. Dubios is producing at a .67 ppg. In 239 games with 159 points, under Paul Maurice I believe that Dubois will find less pressure and an ease of playing with players like Blake Wheeler and Paul Stasny who can get him the puck.

    In the end I see Patrik Laine cracking under Torterella and requesting a trade out of Columbus sometime next season and Roslovic being sent down to the AHL. Dubois will find success in Winnipeg and we will see him moving to a first line role and seeing more PP time than what he got with the Jackets. In the end, I fully believe that with this trade Winnipeg absolutely fleeced Columbus.

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