Urheilucast: Patrik Laine's career may come to an end - Mikko Lehtonen's cool comment

Patrik Laine’s situation with the Montreal Canadiens has once again become a topic of discussion, as Urheilucast’s Mikko Lehtonen and Esko Seppänen discussed the forward’s future quite candidly.

The NHL first-round playoff series between the Canadiens and the Tampa Bay Lightning is at 3–2, but the conversation quickly turned to Laine’s possible future decisions – including the World Championships and even the continuation of his career.

Seppänen assessed that if Montreal’s season ends quickly, Laine’s situation will change significantly.

– Well, practically all work obligations are over in Montreal. If Tampa takes two wins from this, we have a very interesting situation where he is practically freed up for the tournaments. He can do whatever he wants if he wants to play without a deal. I wouldn’t be surprised if that happened.

At the same time, he emphasized that Laine’s career is difficult to predict at all.

– Just as it is possible that he might come to the World Championships, it is also possible that (Laine) might never play hockey again. Because this is Patrik Laine. The only thing that can somewhat predict the future is the behavior and actions up to this point in light of history, Seppänen said.

According to him, no certain conclusions can be drawn about Laine’s situation.

– We have no idea what anyone knows about Laine. Will he play, or won’t he play.

At the end of the discussion, Seppänen also raised an extreme scenario and directly asked Lehtonen if he would be surprised by the end of Laine’s career.

– If there were a shocking news release that Patrik Laine has retired from hockey, would you be shocked?

Lehtonen’s response was short and to the point:

– I wouldn’t be surprised, he replied.