Heavy interest suddenly being drawn to former 44-goal scorer in free agency according to Pierre LeBrun

The reason cited is straightforward on the surface: Laine spent more than 100 days on injured reserve with Montreal last season, triggering a CBA provision that makes him eligible for a performance-bonus-heavy deal at a low base AAV.

But Laine already stood in front of reporters and confirmed he was not actually injured at the end of the season.

That one admission rewrites the framing entirely. Laine and his camp made a calculated decision to remain on injured reserve long enough to satisfy the eligibility threshold, deliberately engineering a contract structure that would not have existed for him otherwise.

This was a chess move, not a medical one.

Under the collective bargaining agreement, a player under 35 with 400 or more career NHL games who spends 100-plus days on injured reserve becomes eligible for performance bonuses in his next deal.

That translates to a low base AAV with significant financial upside baked in through incentives.

For any general manager evaluating Laine, that changes the math completely compared to his previous $8.7 million cap hit.

The risk floor drops to almost nothing if he struggles again, and a team gets a former 44-goal scorer at a steep discount if he returns to form.

Here is the part that is not getting enough attention: if Laine actually hits his performance bonuses, the acquiring team carries a meaningful cap liability into the following season.

Every team treating this as a pure low-risk opportunity needs to stress-test the ceiling scenario too.

He is still 28 years old with one of the best releases in hockey. The bonus structure lowers the floor.

But somebody has to pay when the ceiling gets reached.