NHL Rumors: Would the Seattle Kraken be Interested in Patrik Laine?

Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek on 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – The Rat Pack Is Dragged Back to Edmonton episode, on Patrik Laine trade speculation and if the Seattle Kraken would be interested in trading for the Columbus Blue Jackets forward.

** NHLRumors.com transcription

Marek: “One or the other players that were wondering about here lately and we’re all trying to, okay figure out where the right fit is, is Patrick Laine of the Columbus Blue Jackets, or should we say soon to be ex of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Do you have a spidey sense lately on what teams might be warmed to him?”

Friedman: “I have a few people who said to me you have to watch Seattle on this one. And that doesn’t come as a surprise because the Kraken had been looking for scores, right? Yeah, like that. That is a team and whenever we talk about someone looking for a scorer, I mean, everybody is but we mentioned Seattle in particular.”

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Marek: “And they had a 20-goal scorer in Daniel’s Sprong but they let him go. But I digress.”

Friedman: “You just never gonna let that go.

Marek: “No, no, no. To the grave.

Friedman: “The other thing too is like Seattle can do it. Like they’re a team that can that can do this deal. And also to you know, like that, like the, like Ron Francis is not crazy about wild contracts. Two times $8.7 (million), and, and we’ll see what Columbus may have to do to make this work. That’s not insane for the Kraken. And it’s not insane for Ron Francis.

And I, I think the other thing here too, is that as we talked about with the coaching change there from Hakstol to Bylsma, I think there is a real push in that organization to be more aggressive. And I see Laine as something that makes sense there for the people who want to be more aggressive, and the people who prefer to be a little bit conservative, because I don’t think his contract breaks you or is overly risky.

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So that, Seattle is one of the teams I’m really wondering about there for Laine.