Laine says he doesn't have to ''prove anything to anyone'' this year

The 2020-21 season was a rough one for Patrik Laine. It started before the season even began when he reportedly requested a trade from the Winnipeg Jets. That became a reality on January 23rd when he was shipped to Columbus along with Jack Roslovic in exchange for Pierre-Luc Dubois.

His first season in Columbus was a rocky one to say the least. Laine found himself benched multiple times during the year by head coach John Tortorella. Thankfully for Laine, Tortorella is no longer the head coach of the Blue Jackets, after the organization decided to mutually part ways with him. In comes new head coach, Brad Larsen, who will more than likely give Laine all the opportunity in the world to become the player he was prior to his arrival in Ohio.

The Tampere, Finland native finished the season with 24 points (12 G, 12 A) all of which were career lows.

During his final media availability of the season, Laine told reporters that he was going to skip the 2021 IIHF World Hockey Championships "Because of this season, I can't stand even a game of hockey."

On Thursday, Laine met with the media ahead of the Blue Jackets' first on-ice skate of training camp and he was asked if there was anything he needed to prove due to his poor statistical showing last year.

Laine responded with, "Yeah, I don't think I need to prove anything anymore. I think I've already proved what I can do in this league. You know, scoring over 40, it's not an everyday think for a lot of guys in this league. So, I know I've done that already. So, I don't think I'm in that position anymore, where I need to prove anything to anybody. But I still want to be better. It doesn't matter if I scored 70 last year. I'd still want to be better. And I'm not really a numbers guy, like, I don't really set certain goals for the year, 'I want to score this many goals' or whatever. I just want to be a better player than I was last year and it's going to be easier this year, because I was pretty sh*t last year. But you know, just kind of try to build off last year and try to be better and have fun this year."

Laine and the Blue Jackets will open their pre-season schedule on Monday, September 27th when they travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Penguins.

#CBJ forward Patrik Laine on last season's statistical plummet and whether it's motivation to prove he's better than those numbers:

"Yeah, I don't think I need to prove anything anymore. I think I've proved already what I can do in this league."

Full comments -> pic.twitter.com/F82oGhwlvs— Brian Hedger (@BrianHedger) September 23, 2021

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