Guillaume Latendresse hesitates between Cole Caufield and Patrik Laine

Patrik Laine has been the talk of the town lately.

The trade rumours surrounding him are rife, and it doesn’t take much for him to be linked to the Montreal Canadiens, since we know that Kent Hughes wants to add some offensive punch.

During an episode of the podcast La Poche Bleue, with Maxim Lapierre and Guillaume Latendresse, the latter made a shocking statement.

Discussing Laine’s undeniable talent, the two guys from La Poche Bleue came to the (obvious) conclusion that you don’t want to build your team around a guy like Laine.

Latendresse, on the other hand, thinks big of Laine, maybe even a little too big.

Lapierre asked his good friend whether he’d choose Cole Caufield or Laine, and we can see that Tender hesitated for a long time, before finally taking CC22.

Incredible, though.

But that’s not all.

Lapierre then posed his question differently, wanting to know if Latendresse would take Caufield at 20, or Laine at 20.

And there was no hesitation: his choice was Laine.

I understand the principle that we didn’t have the same opinion of Laine as we do today. Laziness wasn’t a factor… yet.

But Caufield at 20, had just smashed it at university level.

He had racked up 52 points, including 31 goals, in just 30 NCAA games with the University of Wisconsin.

He also played for the Laval Rocket for two games, scoring 3 goals and 1 assist, before being recalled by the Montreal Canadiens.

And that’s when we saw the real Caufield. In 20 NHL playoff games, with only 10 games under his belt with the big club, he collected 12 points.

But on the other hand, it’s true that Laine was already a very productive 20-year-old in the NHL.

It’s also worth mentioning that, after last season, many people are starting to have doubts about Caufield.

After all, a natural scorer like Caufield at nearly $8 million a year should score more than 28 goals, even if that’s very good.

The fact that CC22 scored 26 goals in 46 games last season didn’t help his cause, as almost all fans and experts expected Caufield to score 40 goals in 2023-24.

But let’s not forget that Caufield does more than score goals. He knows how to feed his teammates, as his 37 assists attest.

He had just 10 assists in 2022-23.

What’s more, his defensive game has greatly improved this year.

Choosing Laine over Caufield at 20 makes sense in a way, but in my opinion, Caufield can bring more to a club.