Off-Season Countdown: CBJ seeks 'little bit of a compromise' from Laine

Ahead of the NHL Draft on July 7 and the opening of free agency on July 13, TSN.ca keeps you up to date with all the latest rumours and speculation from around the NHL beat.

Patrik Laine is set for restricted free agency again this year after accepting his one-year, $7.5 million qualifying offer last summer.

Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports that the Blue Jackets have discussed multiple terms with Laine, but the bigger challenge will be finding a cap hit both sides can agree on.

Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen told Portzline there would need to be "compromise" in order to get a deal done. 

“They have their thoughts, and we have our thoughts,” Kekalainen said. “Our main thought is we want to make everything fit so that we can build a championship team.

"We believe in fair contracts, but the guys have to understand that they want to have a better team around them, too. That’s where there needs to be a little bit of a compromise.”

Laine, 24, bounced from a slow start with the Blue Jackets last year, posting 26 goals and 56 points in 56 games this season. He had 12 goals and 24 points in 46 games in 2020-21. 

Selected second overall in the 2016 NHL Draft, Laine scored a career-high 44 goals with the Winnipeg Jets in 2017-18, but has reached the 30-goal mark just once since. He was traded along with Jack Roslovic to the Blue Jackets in exchange for Pierre-Luc Dubois and a 2022 third-round pick.

Columbus has just over $21 million in cap space this summer, per CapFriendly, after signing Roslovic to a two-year, $8 million extension last week.  

The New York Rangers paid a steep price to acquire Andrew Copp from the Winnipeg Jets at the trade deadline, but keeping the 27-year-old on Broadway could prove to be