- George Richards floated the Panthers as a landing spot for Patrik Laine after Brad Marchand’s surgery
- Laine scored 44 goals for Paul Maurice in Winnipeg and came up alongside Aleksander Barkov in Tampere
- Read below for the tryout math and the video of Laine skating in South Florida
Patrik Laine has spent a good chunk of this summer skating in South Florida. There might be a job down there now.
George Richards of Florida Hockey Now raised the idea over the weekend, days after Brad Marchand revealed he had gone under the knife. Here is how Richards put it:
Marchand’s surgery may leave Florida a forward spot open, and Laine is one of the few real names still sitting on the market in the middle of August.
The threads connecting the two sides are not new. Laine scored 44 goals as a 19-year-old playing for Paul Maurice in Winnipeg, and he and Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov both came up through Tappara in Tampere.
Then there is where he has been all offseason. Laine has been training in South Florida, and one recent skate put him on the ice with Aaron Ekblad while he was still wearing Canadiens gear. Take a look:
Marchand is why any of this is on the table. The 38-year-old had surgery believed to be on his hip and groin, and the recovery could run two months or more, which puts training camp and the Sept. 29 opener in Carolina at risk.
Laine’s season was worse. He played five games for Montreal, finished with a single assist, and had core muscle surgery in late October that wiped out the rest of the year.
Five teams were linked to him earlier this summer and none of them signed him. Nobody is offering term at this point either. A one-year prove-it deal is the ceiling, and a professional tryout is the likelier route with camps a month out.
Cap space is the other hurdle. Florida is tight against the ceiling, though Marchand landing on LTIR would loosen that up, and the roster is close to full with rookie Sandis Vilmanis in line for a look alongside Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen.
Florida would be risking a jersey and three weeks of ice time. Laine put up 15 power-play goals in his last healthy season.
