'Patrik Laine is sure to end up being a baboon'

And in their eyes, the reason is quite simple: Laine is at the end of his contract and is currently trying to store around for a new one. For a player whose bread and butter is scoring goals, he’s not exactly placed in a position that brings out his skills.The second powerplay wave hardly plays at all, after all: the first is on the ice for almost the entire two minutes, so the second often gets a single (and very short) opportunity to do some damage. We’re not exactly talking about winning conditions for Laine. That said, it’s worth remembering that Martin St-Louis doesn’t coach to ensure that Laine gets a new contract: he’s there to ensure that his club wins games. And right now, it’s hard to argue that Laine deserves more playing time.He’s not bad, of course, but he doesn’t particularly stand out, which is what other guys ahead of him in the pecking order are doing right now. We can think of Zachary Bolduc, for example, who “stole” his place on the first wave… and who is playing some very big hockey.We’ll have to see how all this develops over the coming weeks and months, but it will be interesting to see if Laine eventually starts complaining about his role. Because we know he’s capable of speaking his mind in front of the media.

’Overtime’

– Jacques Lemaire honored by the Wild.

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Zayne Parekh

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– Interesting.

– The Blue Jays’ opponents are in a precarious situation.