A new interesting piece of information has just come out regarding the trade that sent Patrik Laine to the Montreal Canadiens.

Not surprisingly, Kent Hughes wasn’t the only general manager interested in Laine. After all, we’re talking about an extremely talented player who was surprisingly inexpensive to acquire.

Even though the Canadiens were the only team willing to accept that the Blue Jackets wouldn’t retain any percentage of Patrik Laine’s salary in the trade, other teams were still in the running.

According to a report from TVA Sports journalist Renaud Lavoie, Patrik Laine even refused another trade before being dealt to the Habs.

Renaud Lavoie reveals that Patrik Laine refused a trade before his transaction to the Montreal Canadiens

Wow. This is indeed what he mentioned this morning during his first segment of the season on BPM Sports.

«Renaud Lavoie added that towards the end of last season, he doesn’t believe Laine was seriously on the Canadiens’ radar. There was more talk about Trevor Zegras and Martin Necas, who ultimately didn’t move over the summer.»

– Charles-Alexis Brisebois

The story doesn’t specify where Laine refused to be traded, but clearly, it once again proves that he almost chose to play for the Montreal Canadiens (and nowhere else).

He wanted to be here.

How can a player who requested a trade have so much power? Well, it’s important to know that Laine had a no-trade clause.

He could have agreed to waive his clause to go somewhere other than Montreal, but he didn’t.

In any case, we’re really looking forward to seeing him at training camp in a few weeks, and we’re very excited to see him play for the Canadiens this season.