- Patrik Laine has been linked to the Rangers, Wild, Lightning, Maple Leafs and Flyers in free agency
- He hasn’t played an NHL game since Oct. 16 and is coming off a four-year, $34.8 million contract
- Read below for why Philadelphia lines up and what kind of deal Laine can actually sign
Patrik Laine still doesn’t have a contract. The list of teams poking around him is a lot longer than anyone thought.
Herb Zurkowsky of the Montreal Gazette laid out the sniper’s market in an Aug. 5 column, and he counted five NHL clubs.
“Since free agency began on July 1, Laine has been linked to the New York Rangers, Minnesota Wild, Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs and, more recently, the Philadelphia Flyers,” Zurkowsky wrote. “Most of those teams would make sense as destinations for various reasons. Mostly, if a club is seeking offence, the 6-foot-4, 208-pound Laine can deliver.”
That’s a wide net for a guy who couldn’t get a guaranteed offer in July. The Islanders were the only club publicly attached to Laine earlier this summer, and all they put on the table was a preseason tryout.
Islanders reporter Stefen Rosner explained in July why the money matters less than the structure here:
Philadelphia is the newest name and the tidiest fit. The Flyers finished dead last in power-play percentage in 2025-26, and Laine’s entire value is the thing they don’t have.
He scored 20 goals in 52 games with Montreal in 2024-25. Fifteen came on the man advantage. Take a look at the December night he blasted three power-play goals past Buffalo for his 11th career hat trick:
The reason he’s unsigned in the middle of August is the other half of the file. Laine played five games last season before a core muscle injury and surgery wiped out his year, and his last NHL shift came on Oct. 16.
Durability is the whole file. Laine hasn’t finished a full season since 2018-19, and over the last three years he’s dressed for 75 of a possible 246 games. His career goal differential sits at minus-75.
Toronto has one wrinkle nobody else does. Andre Leal of The Hockey News wrote that the Leafs hired Andy O’Brien this offseason as vice president of sport science, a department built around rehab, conditioning and keeping bodies together. For a 28-year-old with Laine’s medical history, that’s a real selling point.
The talent was never the question. Laine has 224 goals and 422 points in 537 games, including 44 in his second season with Winnipeg.
Training camps open next month. None of those five teams has moved on him yet.
