Get ready for slappers, clappers, dekes, cellys and purple shades.
Patrik Laine is isn’t going anywhere.
The Blue Jackets have signed the restricted free agent to a four-year contract extension, ensuring one of the league’s top goal scorers will remain in union blue.
Laine is coming off the first point-per-game season in his career, a campaign in which he had 26 goals and 30 assists for 56 points in 56 games. Included were some memorable moments, including seven game-winning goals, plus enough highlight-reel moments to show that he’s a force to be reckoned with.
Here are the top five Laine highlights from last season to get you excited for what’s to come from one of the league’s best goal scorers.
5. Game, set, match
Laine had three overtime goals on the season, with two coming in the first four games of the season against Seattle and the New York Islanders and the third Feb. 22 in a home game vs. Toronto. The game-winner against the Kraken is the one we’ll include here, as it was a signal his 2021-22 season was off on the right foot.
Video: SEA@CBJ: Laine fires puck short side for overtime win
4. Hatrik Laine
Coming back from a difficult time away from the team in November and December that included an oblique injury and the passing of his father Harri, Laine caught fire in the second half of the season. He scored 19 goals in a 22-game span from late January through mid-March, including his first hat trick in a CBJ uniform Feb. 17 at Chicago. Laine scored just nine seconds into the second period, added an insurance goal early in the third and finished things off with an empty-netter with five seconds to go.
Video: CBJ@CHI: Laine buries empty-netter for hat trick
3. Playmaker Patrik
Laine has often maintained his passing skills are equal to his finishing skills, and his climbing assist totals in recent years would indicate he has a point. He turned heads on numerous occasions on the season with expert passes to teammates, but none was no important than his diagonal pass to Jakub Voracek in the final seconds March 5 against Boston. Voracek then wristed Laine’s pass — which snuck past two Boston sticks — into the net in the final seconds to force overtime on Rick Nash’s jersey retirement night, one of the most memorable games on the year for the never-say-die Jackets.
Video: BOS@CBJ: Voracek sends it to OT with 3 seconds to go
2. Going Inside-Out
We know Laine can shoot. We know he can pass. But don’t forget, the man can also deke. While his size doesn’t make him appear to be the swiftest of skaters to some defenders, he’s shown the ability to turn plenty of opposing players in and out during his time in union blue. Unfortunately for New Jersey’s Damon Severson, he found that out the hard way March 1 when Laine faked inside, went outside around the defender’s hip check attempt, settled the puck and fired past Nico Daws for a highlight-reel goal.
Video: NJD@CBJ: Laine stick handles, buries wrist shot
1. Last-Second Winner
The Blue Jackets have played hockey for 21 seasons, and Laine now owns a bit of CBJ history with his game-winning goal at Montreal on Feb. 12. With the Jackets and Canadiens locked in a 1-1 game in the dying seconds and Columbus on the power play, Laine took a pass from Zach Werenski and launched a 93.9-mph one-timer into the net. Officially, the puck went in at 19:52, making it the latest game-winning goal in regulation in team history as the Jackets finished off the 2-1 victory.
Video: CBJ@MTL: Laine rifles go-ahead goal late in 3rd
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism