3 Potential Landing Spots for Former Canadiens Winger Patrik Laine – The Hockey Writers – Montreal Canadiens

The Montreal Canadiens took a flyer on Finnish winger Patrik Laine two years ago. He was acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets with a second-round pick in exchange for Jordan Harris. After playing just five games last season, the experiment has come to a close.

Laine entered the NHL with a lot of hype as the second-overall pick in the 2016 Draft. He scored 80 goals combined over his first two seasons with the Winnipeg Jets and looked to be on the cusp of an incredible goal-scoring career. However, those initial two seasons remain, by far, his two most productive when it comes to putting pucks in the net.

Although his 2025-26 campaign with the Canadiens was unremarkable, he did make quite the splash when he first arrived. The 2024-25 Canadiens were a team in transition, attempting to remove their label as league doormat and turn themselves into an actual playoff contender. With Laine’s help, they not only contended for the postseason, but grabbed the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Laine scored 20 goals and 33 points in 52 games that season, including a ridiculous scoring surge when he was finally healthy enough to step into the lineup. The 6-foot-4 winger scored 12 goals in his first 18 games after missing the first two months of the season due to knee surgery. However, he did struggle with the pace of play toward the end of the regular season and saw action in just two of the team’s five playoff games as a result.

Laine underwent core-muscle surgery last October, and though he seemed to be healthy by the end of January, he did not dress for another game with the Canadiens. The 28-year-old from Tampere, Finland remains a free agent but showed in his first season with the Canadiens that he still has a lethal shot on the power play and could help a team next season. Which teams make sense as landing spots for the Canadiens’ former winger?

Philadelphia Flyers

Sometimes looking for a match like this can be as simple as adding two and two. Laine has lost a step over time due to several significant injuries and is not the even-strength weapon he once was, but he has never lost that shot on the power play. The Philadelphia Flyers had the worst power play in the league last season.

Scoring on just 15.7% of their opportunities, the Flyers were still able to make the playoffs in a shallow Metropolitan Division. That will be tougher in the upcoming season with a much-improved Washington Capitals team and assuming the New Jersey Devils will not be riddled with injuries like last season.

The Flyers do have a number of young forwards like Alex Bump, Denver Barkey and Porter Martone who they will be working into the lineup. That means it is not a perfect fit to get Laine in there as well, but they desperately need help on the power play to keep pace in their division, and there is no one else available to transform that special team’s unit like Laine.

Vancouver Canucks

The Vancouver Canucks are one of the few teams in the league who are acknowledging they are currently rebuilding. Part of that plan involved shipping out high-priced veterans and they are focusing on building a proper culture.

Laine proved last season to be a great teammate as he felt healthy enough to play in January, but stuck around and was often seen supporting teammates at practice and in post-game video clips right through the Eastern Conference Final without every seeing game action. There was no sulking or complaining from the veteran about playing time.

The Canucks are going to need some veterans to show their younger players how to be good teammates through tough times. That is why they brought in Brendan Gallagher from the Canadiens in a trade earlier this offseason. They also have plenty of cap space to fit Laine on their club while looking to move more players for future pieces.

If Laine proves he can still put the puck in the back of the net, it would benefit the Canucks even more as they could trade him for draft picks at the trade deadline.

Colorado Avalanche

It may seem odd that the team trying to be the worst is a good fit for Laine, and the reigning Presidents’ Trophy winners also are. But, the Colorado Avalanche oddly had a poor power play last season, and Laine could help fix one of the few areas of weakness that exist on their roster.

While they led the NHL with 121 points in the regular season, the Avalanche power play ranked 27th in the league, scoring on 17.1% of their opportunities. With so much depth at center, including Nathan MacKinnon, Brock Nelson, Nazem Kadri and Nicholas Roy, Laine could fit into a depth role at even strength with a strong center, and also take on a prominent role on the man advantage.

When the opposing team’s penalty killing unit is focused on shutting down MacKinnon and Cale Makar, Laine would get plenty of opportunity to unleash his dangerous one-timer, turning a poor power play into a real threat. Colorado does not have a lot of cap space at the moment, but since Laine has played over 400 games in his career, and spent more than 100 days on injured reserve last season, he is eligible to sign a one-year contract with performance bonuses.

That means the Avalanche could sign him to a league minimum salary for the upcoming season but include bonus money if Laine scores a certain number of goals or points. If he reaches any of those goals, the bonus money gets attached to the salary cap the following season.

Laine’s two-year tenure with the Canadiens may be up, and it is getting late in the offseason with training camp suddenly around the corner. However, he can still help a team with his booming shot on the power play, and for that reason we should see him join an NHL team soon.