The Jets without Laine

Laine was out of the line up against the Maple Leafs tonight; it was fairly obvious that last piece to the 2nd line was missing. I have no real issue with Perreault on most teams he would be a great second liner. But with the Jets Laine makes so much sense to be on that second line.  Laine’s ability to just score at will is amazing but there is so much riding on him being on that second line. That brings me to my point they Jets aren’t a great team without Laine.  There are elements of a great team without him but Laine completes the the top 6 and helps the rest of the team.

Chevy and Maurice need to do what ever they can to keep Laine in the line-up because without him the Jets are losing a generational goal scoring.  He is as close to Ovi as one can get. We have all seen that slap shot and that beautiful little wrister, both of Laine’s goals we saw against the Flames were Laine’s bread and butter. He is also so important to the top Power Play the fact the Jets went 0/3 tonight and it there were only 2 real good chances on the Power Play; how many more chances would the Jets of had if they had Laine on the top PP?

 

There is no trade that the Jets could legitimately make where they are going to win unless Ken Holland has an off day and trades Draisatl. The Jets need a goal scorer someone that is going to shoot rather than pass or try to make the play happen. And a multiplayer trade where the Jets give up only Laine and get 5 pieces back will not be good.  There has been far to many trades like that in the NHL where the team that trades an elite player for a bunch of average players always blows up in the face of the team who gives up the elite player.

The Jets front office and coaching staff needs to either fully trust in Laine and start giving him top line minutes and find the funds to keep him or they need to fully accept they need to go into rebuild mode and get some draft picks and trade both Laine and Statsny. Laine is the player that can get the Jets into the playoffs because without him the Jets are lost.

The clock is ticking on Chevy to either accept hes going into a rebuild which I think will be better for the Jets in the long run or hes going to make Laine happy and maybe keep him in Winnipeg.

 

What should the Jets do? Would you make a big trade and move on from Laine and start the rebuild or should they do what they can to make Laine happy and keep around and hopefully go deep into the playoffs.