How Patrik Laine got the Flyers to terminate Ryan Johansen's contract
This is crazy! It ends up costing Johansen $8 million!
According to a report from Montreal Canadiens insider Maxime Truman of Dans Les Coulisses ('Behind the Scenes'), newly acquired Canadiens forward Patrik Laine turned down a trade to the Philadelphia Flyers before agreeing to a deal with the Habs.
On the Laraque & Gonzalez show with former NHLer Georges Laraque, Truman said (in French) that Laine used his no-trade clause to reject a trade with the Flyers for Ryan Johansen. The Flyers have since terminated Johansen's contract, but the idea was that the Blue Jackets would take Johansen back and place him on long-term injury reserve to reap the salary cap benefits.
Laine rejected the trade though and the Flyers terminated Johansen's $8 million contract citing a 'material breach' in their agreement with Johansen. It's worth noting that Johansen has appealed his contract termination but he's currently an unrestricted free agent and given his injury history it looks like his NHL career is over.
Click below to hear the full story (in French) from Truman:
Presumably, Laine wasn't satisfied with what he saw in the Flyers and that includes head coach John Tortorella. Laine played a season under Laine with the Columbus Blue Jackets back in 2020-21 before Torts moved on to join the Flyers.
In the end, Laine decided that the opportunity provided to him in Montreal was simply a better environment than the one in Philadelphia. Neither team is going to compete for the Stanley Cup this upcoming season, but in Montreal Laine will be given ample opportunity to fill the net on the Habs' high powered PP.
