{"id":784160,"date":"2026-07-25T18:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T18:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/784160\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T18:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T18:31:09","slug":"latest-on-patrik-laine-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/784160\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest On Patrik Laine \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unrestricted free agent forward Patrik Laine<\/a> has had a seemingly quiet market this summer, and he remains unsigned as the calendar inches closer to August. With so much of free agency already in the rearview mirror, it\u2019s not only unclear\u00a0where in the NHL Laine will land for 2026-27, but also what kind of contract he\u2019ll receive in order to do so.<\/p>\n

One team that has been previously connected to Laine is the New York Islanders. Stefen Rosner of The Elmonters reported earlier this summer<\/a> that the Islanders had expressed some interest in Laine, but it was not clear to what level they were interested, especially seeing as no contract has materialized. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, we have some more detail on the nature of the Islanders\u2019 interest in Laine.<\/p>\n

According to Rosner<\/a>, the Islanders \u201cdid have conversations with Patrik Laine\u2019s camp when free agency opened,\u201d but the team was not, and is not, willing to offer Laine \u201canything more than a Professional Tryout (PTO)\u201d for training camp and the now-shortened preseason.<\/p>\n

Rosner also noted that the Islanders \u201calready have a logjam at forward,\u201d and, therefore, are unlikely to circle back to pursuing Laine now that their initial interest has fizzled out.<\/p>\n

Where that leaves Laine himself is entirely uncertain. Reports of teams interested in Laine have been scarce this summer, with the Islanders and Los Angeles Kings being the only two teams credibly connected to the winger. And in the Kings\u2019 case, their interest was reported closer to the trade deadline, so it\u2019s unclear whether that reported interest has sustained into the offseason.<\/p>\n

In any case, Laine is a complicated free agent to project<\/a>. He is simultaneously in the argument as the most talented player still available in unrestricted free agency, and also someone few teams would sign and pencil in as a guaranteed part of their plans for next year.<\/p>\n

While he is reportedly fully healthy and ready to go for training camp, Laine played in just five games in 2025-26. The year before, he played in 52. Across the last half-decade of NHL hockey, Laine has played in 186 games, out of a total of 410 his teams competed in across that time frame.<\/p>\n

One of the game\u2019s most naturally talented pure snipers, Laine is far removed from his days as a 40-goal scorer with the Winnipeg Jets, but showed he can still help an NHL power play during his time in Montreal. During the 2024-25 season, Laine scored 20 goals, 15 of them coming on the man advantage. His 15 power play markers ranked fifth in the NHL, despite, again, playing in only 52 games.<\/p>\n

If a team is interested in Laine at this point, it\u2019s likely with the aim of improving their power play. There are some teams still in need of scoring at this point in the summer \u2013 The Athletic\u2019s Vince Z. Mercogliano reported<\/a> earlier this week that the New York Rangers are still \u201cactively seeking\u201d more offensive firepower \u2013 but it\u2019s unclear if any of those offense-needy teams, such as the Rangers, see Laine as a potential solution.<\/p>\n

While it seems almost unfathomable that a player with the kind of talent Laine possesses might need to settle for a PTO, Rosner\u2019s report indicates that there are some teams that might have interest in Laine, but only on a tryout basis.<\/p>\n

Although it still seems unlikely, the longer the former star goal scorer lingers on the open market without a contract, the more likely it will become that he might have to work his way into his next NHL deal during a training camp.<\/p>\n

Photos courtesy of Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unrestricted free agent forward Patrik Laine has had a seemingly quiet market this summer, and he remains unsigned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[6403,394,385,297275,99],"class_list":["post-784160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-free-agency","tag-new-york-islanders","tag-nhl","tag-patrik-laine","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}