Elliotte Friedman reveals exclusive information about a major trade negotiated by Minnesota

He not only gave up just Jordan Harris, but also received a 2025 second-round pick in the deal.

In recent days, we learned that the Philadelphia Flyers had made an offer for Laine, but Laine refused to waive his no-trade clause to be moved to Pennsylvania.

In a recent episode of the very popular podcast 32 Thoughts, Elliotte Friedman and his new co-host Kyle Bukauskas revealed another team that was interested in the Canadiens' new number 92. It was the Minnesota Wild.

What influenced the Blue Jackets' decision to deal with the Canadiens instead of the Wild was definitely Kent Hughes' agreement to take on Laine's entire contract. According to the excellent site Puckpedia, the Wild are severely handicapped by the buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, which will take up more than $14.7M of the Wild's cap for the upcoming season. Fortunately for Bill Guerin, the future looks brighter, as the buyout cost will drop to $1.666M until the end of the 2027-2028 season.

Guerin was thus limited (he only has $756,410 of cap space) and couldn't take on Laine's full salary. Kent Hughes, thanks to his smart cap management since joining the team, was able to steal the Finnish star from the Wild and other teams interested in him.

As for the Canadiens, Friedman didn't hesitate to express his excitement for the coming years.

We love hearing that from him. You can listen to the excellent podcast below: