Laine is waiting by the phone, and Calgary should call back
The Flames and Red Wings have both discussed signing Patrik Laine. Only one of them has the scoring problem he solves.
Patrik Laine is training in Florida, waiting for a phone call, and two teams keep picking up the receiver and putting it back down. The rumor is real. The better fit is the team that's being coy about it, and that's Calgary.
Pierre LeBrun put the Flames and the Red Wings on the list this week: both have discussed signing Laine, and several teams have called his camp more than once without anybody committing. That's a named insider with two named teams. On my scale, it's Reported.
File under: Free-agent market
What's actually on the table
Laine is 28 and an unrestricted free agent who went unsigned all summer. He played five games for Montreal last season before core muscle surgery ended it. The season before, he scored 20 goals and 33 points in 52 games, and 15 of those goals came on the power play. Only five came at even strength.
The structure being floated is the interesting part. A deal heavy on performance bonuses would guarantee only his base salary, and the line going around is that roughly $150,000 a month buys a seven-time 20-goal scorer.
His last contract carried an $8.7 million cap hit. The next one won't come close, and Marcus can tell you what it should be. I'll tell you who's calling.
What the numbers say
Calgary has three goals in three games and has been outscored 16-3, by our count from NHL data. Morgan Frost, Matt Coronato and Ryan Strome have one apiece. The power play has two goals on five chances, which is fine, except the Flames can't draw enough penalties to use it.
Detroit is a different team with a different problem. The Red Wings have seven goals in three games, three on the power play, and Alex DeBrincat and Viktor Arvidsson already have two apiece. Their penalty kill is at 61.5%. Laine doesn't kill penalties.
Three games is a tiny sample. But one of these teams can't score, and the other can't defend.
The read
The Flames want to look at their own kids first, and that's an honest position for a club developing young forwards. Then Connor Zary cleared waivers Tuesday, which opens a roster spot. Calgary also came out of the summer with room on the cap sheet, projected around $16 million in August.
Detroit's interest is about the power play, and Dylan Larkin's season debut on Tuesday already changed their forward picture. They don't need a shooter as badly as they need stops.
My handicap: if anybody signs him before American Thanksgiving, it's Calgary. A team that's 0-3 can only wait on its kids for so long.
The Florida question
Somebody will ask, so here it is. He's training in Florida, and the Panthers' power play is 1-for-23, by our count. Nobody with a name has tied him to Sunrise. I'd treat that as geography, not smoke.
