The Unusual $2M Signing Bonus That Scared Off Laine Trade Suitors

The Montreal Canadiens’ trade deadline came and went with Patrik Laine still in the fold. Given how much talk there was about the team’s attempts to move him, that he didn’t go was a bit surprising. As a pending unrestricted free agent without much of a future in Montreal, it seemed like Laine was as good as gone.

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Laine carries an $8.7 million cap hit in the final year of his four-year, $34.8 million contract. That was admittedly a hurdle. However, it might not have been the biggest one. Multiple factors made it tricky for many teams to seriously consider Laine, even those not on his 10-team no-trade list. The most intriguing financial hurdle was a $2 million signing bonus scheduled to pay out on March 31—an unusually late timing in the NHL calendar.

As Andrew Epps of The Hockey Writers points out, unlike performance bonuses (which defer cap impact to the next season), this guaranteed signing bonus counts fully against the current year’s cap when paid. Post-deadline, any acquiring team would shoulder the full $2 million cash outlay plus prorated salary for just a handful of regular-season games and minimal playoff upside. No contender wanted to inherit that expense without heavy compensation or retention from Montreal. The Canadiens weren’t about to go there.

Arpon Basu of The Athletic also highlighted the quirk as a “major complicating factor.” He wrote, “Essentially, it makes the sweetener that much more expensive, because no team is going to want to pay that signing bonus without being sufficiently compensated for it.”

PuckPedia and other sources confirmed the $7.1 million base salary plus the $2 million bonus for 2025-26. Some wonder if this was all Laine’s agent being clever during negotiations, which likely served as additional trade protection for the player.

In the end, Laine stayed put. What happens in the summer remains unclear, but he’s not likely to get anywhere near the same salary and it’s likely not coming from the Canadiens.

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