The Chicago Blackhawks have a lot of forwards, which is good for them in their quest to be a better team in 2026-27. However, that doesn’t mean that they must be satisfied. There are improvements that they made, but they must not overvalue players in their organization either. If there is help out there, they should take swings.
One of those swings could be free-agent forward Patrik Laine, who is still on the market looking for his next hockey home. Of course, Laine was the second overall pick by the Winnipeg Jets in the 2016 NHL Draft. Since then, Laine has had tenures with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Montreal Canadiens.
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Early in his career, Laine was one of the best young snipers in the NHL. In his rookie year, a second place Calder Trophy finish to Auston Matthews, he had 36 goals. He followed that up with 44 one year after, and 30 in year three. In his fourth year, he scored 28 in 68 games before the league was shut down by COVID-19.
139 goals in the first 305 games of an NHL career is elite production. However, when the league resumed for the 2020-21 season, things slowed down a little bit for him. He was traded, the goals didn’t come in bunches like they were before the pause, and his reputation as a top-five scorer quickly faded.
The thing is, however, that Laine still has 3 20-goal seasons since then, including as recently as 2024-25. In his last 186 games played, he has 74 goals, which is more than solid.
During the 2025-26 season, Laine only played in 5 games, so he was not able to get his game going the way he is capable of.
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However, there are reasons to believe he can still score a ton of goals if he comes into camp healthy and motivated. He is only 28 years old and has a lot of good hockey left if he wants it.
His shot is what made him so lethal, and that is not something that has gone away from his game. Even if his skating were to slow down, he’ll almost always have that booming wrist and slap shot.
There is room for a sniper of Laine’s caliber in Chicago’s top six. With playmakers like Connor Bedard, Patrick Kane, and Frank Nazar around, he might find himself with a lot of high-danger scoring chances at even strength.
On the power play, they could use him as a sniper on either unit. Separating him from Anton Frondell with the man advantage would give them two big one-time shots to work with. Overall, Laine would make them a much deeper team.
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Don’t mistake Laine’s sniping prowess for lack of solid playmaking ability, either. He has 198 assists in his NHL career, which do not grow on trees. Other goal scores on Chicago’s roster could also benefit from an addition like him to the group.
Teuvo Teravainen is a fellow Finnish-born forward who could be there to help Laine get acclimated too, which we’ve seen be important in the NHL before. There are some stars aligned that make a transaction like this look feasible for Chicago.
Laine likely won’t command a ton of money, either, which would make it a low-risk, high-reward type of move. They could get a lot of goals for cheap. Even if they give him a PTO with a chance to earn a spot out of camp, which he likely would if healthy, they give themselves a chance to add a high-end sniper.
There are plenty of examples of players having a career resurgence down the road, and Laine is only 28, which is not old in hockey years at all.
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