NHL free agency is just over a week away, and the Edmonton Oilers are expected to explore all available options.

Recently, hockey insider Pierre LeBrun noted there has been significant interest in forward Patrik Laine, who played just five games last season with the Montreal Canadiens. He recently said:

“The hook there is that teams can sign him to a low-risk deal because he spent more than 100 days on injured reserve this past season, meaning he’s eligible for a performance bonus-based contract at a low average annual value.”

With that in mind, let’s take a look at what Laine could bring to the Oilers and whether it makes sense to acquire him.

What could Laine add to the Oilers’ lineup?

Laine would add scoring to the Oilers, and could be the trigger man next to Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl, with one of his top skills being his hard, accurate shot, having scored the fourth-most goals (224) among the 2016 NHL Draft class.

The 28-year-old only played five games last season due to injury, which we’ll dive deeper into later in the article. However, using NHL Edge data from the 2024-25 season as a larger sample, his hardest recorded shot was 90.69 MPH, which ranked in the 82nd percentile in the NHL.

Where Laine can really make an impact for any NHL club is by ripping pucks on the power play from the top of the circle.

Since he missed most of last season, let’s take a look at his body of work from 2024–25. Despite missing 30 games, he still led the Canadiens with 15 power-play goals, and all 15 came in a similar fashion.

He wasn’t banging away at rebounds, and the puck wasn’t........

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