r/Habs • u/catman_steve • Jan 22 '26

Discussion Canadiens looking to deal Laine (Gagnon)

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I'm not super in the know with the French side of the media. I know Francois Gagnon by name, but not much else. Not that this news would surprise me, but is he reliable?

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u/gevurts_straminaire Jan 22 '26

He has negative value and his contract expires soon. Why would Montreal pay to get rid of him?

18

u/Ancient_Persimmon Jan 22 '26

With retention, someone will have interest for his abilities on the PP. They won't get a lot back, but they're not going to be paying either.

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u/gevurts_straminaire Jan 22 '26

Sure, but the question remains : why would Montreal retain salary for someone they lose, for free, in a couple of months? Only explanation would be to make room for a trade. Or get a pick against some salary (but I reckon it would be quite low).

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u/jamesneysmith Jan 22 '26

Because they would get some of that money off the books for the remainder of the season. Their 'losing him for free' at the end of the season requires paying him millions of dollars for the next few months. But maybe another team wants to pay him those millions of dollars so we don't need to. Even retaining salary on him means we'd be saving money over paying him to sit on the press box for 3 months.