No. 3: Columbus Blue Jackets
Hypothetical Trade:
- Toronto Maple Leafs acquire: Patrik Laine, Boone Jenner, 2023 1st Round (22nd Overall)
- Columbus Blue Jackets acquire: Mitch Marner
Laine has had some issues during his first few seasons as a professional, but there’s no denying his talent.
Paired beside Matthews every night, these two could be a powerful goal-scoring nightmare for any team.
Despite the criticism against him, I love this trade because of Laine’s size and goal-scoring prowess. At $8.7M, that’s a good price for a 40-goal scorer and if he played in Toronto, there’s no doubt he’d not only reach 40 again, but could get to 50 goals.
Columbus is still in a rebuild and could use someone of Marner’s talents, however it would cost them and I think they would do this deal.
Laine has baggage, and although Jenner is the captain of the team, trading for Marner speeds up their rebuild. Him and Johnny Gaudreau would be like a video game out there and would each put 100 points easily on a line together.
This is a fair trade for both teams and Laine would tear it up on Toronto if they made this deal.