{"id":806721,"date":"2026-08-08T10:38:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T10:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/806721\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T10:38:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T10:38:19","slug":"ufa-patrik-laine-linked-to-5-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/806721\/","title":{"rendered":"UFA Patrik Laine Linked To 5 Teams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Social Media Feature Preview\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/HCgmgS0WMAAbEz9.jpeg\"\/>Patrik Laine remains one of the top options on the UFA market for teams looking for an offensive boost for their lineups. The seven-time 20-goal scorer and former 2nd overall pick in the NHL Draft will have to take a massive pay cut, as he&#8217;s coming off his $8.7 million AAV contract.\u00a0The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhltraderumors.me\/search\/label\/Montreal%20Canadiens\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Montreal Canadiens<\/a> don&#8217;t seem the least bit interested in bringing him back, after Laine played just five games for them last year, due to injury, and then their reluctance to add him back to the roster for the last few months of the season after he was supposedly healthy.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But Laine is still just 28, and popped 20 goals for the Habs in just 52 games the year before.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>New York RangersMinnesota WildTampa Bay LightningToronto Maple LeafsPhiladelphia Flyers<\/p>\n<p>For the Rangers, the team finished 23rd in the NHL in goals scored last season. Adding Pavel Dorofeyev this offseason in a big sign-and-trade with the Vegas Golden Knights will help to address that, but Laine could also be a low-risk, high-upside potential target. GM Chris Drury is still looking to add a forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Wild don&#8217;t appear ready to re-up with their own UFA, Vladimir Tarasenko, who provided 23 goals last season, so perhaps they&#8217;d consider Laine a potential replacement for that production at a much cheaper price. They did pursue him earlier this summer.<\/p>\n<p>Zurkowsky suggests that Laine could line up with Auston Matthews in Toronto, but adding a playmaker to Matthews&#8217; wing would make more sense.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As for Philly, he writes, &#8220;While the Flyers\u2019 power play could use improvement, it seems unlikely any marriage between Laine and demanding head coach Rick Tocchet would be blissful.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Wherever he winds up, there likely wouldn&#8217;t be a big role for Laine, perhaps only as a power play specialist, as his defensive acumen is always in question. In addition, injuries have derailed him for large swaths of each of the last six seasons, ever since he left Winnipeg. For these reasons, he will likely be forced to take a minimum salary &#8220;prove it&#8221; type deal, at best.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patrik Laine remains one of the top options on the UFA market for teams looking for an offensive&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-806721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806721","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=806721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}