Patrik Laine suffered a brutal pre-season injury against the Maple Leafs, and now it appears he's set for a lengthy stint on the sidelines. The pre-season has been brutal for injuries around the NHL, and in very unnecessary fashion, Patrik Laine was also hurt against the Maple Leafs, with the seemingly intentional move from Cedric Pare taking him off the ice. After speculation all day on Sunday, it has now been revealed that Laine will be out of action for the whole 2024 calendar year with the knee injury, a brutal blow to a Canadiens squad that was so excited to add Laine to their lineup. <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/stevekouleas/status/1840837332225953833'> </a></blockquote></div> This season, Laine was expected to take his place alongside Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook on Montreal's second line, but with him suffering this brutal and simply unnecessary injury, they'll now be forced to switch up the lineup in a way that no one was expecting. Although the former Jets and Blue Jackets star has a history of injuries, this one was an unfortunate incident that could have happened to anyone, especially with a career AHLer looking to make his name in pre-season by playing like this, so hopefully he can get back to 100% in no time. For Laine, this is another bump in the road after he missed significant time last year with mental health struggles which were fully supported by his team, but now he'll start 2024/25 with another stint on the sidelines, which is a brutal break for the 26-year old. When healthy, the Finnish star is one of the most electric players in the NHL, tallying 80 goals in his first two seasons in the NHL, so now we will wait and see if he can get back to that after this latest injury.