The Los Angeles Kings have discussed Patrik Laine as a possible addition, and the timing tells you exactly how this season has opened.
TSN's Pierre LeBrun reported the talks heading into tonight's game against the Islanders. He also made clear he doesn't know whether Los Angeles will actually go there.
Nobody should mistake that for an offer. But front offices don't kick around a name like this when things are humming.
And nothing is humming. The Kings sit 1-4-2 with four points, 31st overall and seventh in the Pacific.
They've scored 17 goals and allowed 27. A -10 goal differential after seven games is the kind of hole that makes October feel like March.
The power play explains the phone call. Los Angeles has four power-play goals all season, one each from Artemi Panarin, Adrian Kempe, Erik Gustafsson and Quinton Byfield.
That's where the Finnish winger's one-timer enters the conversation. He scored 20 goals in 52 games with Montreal in 2024-25, and the shot was never the question.
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Laine's lost season puts Ken Holland on the spot
Availability is. Laine played just five games in 2025-26, with no goals and one assist, before a core-muscle injury required surgery.
He hasn't dressed for an NHL game since October 2025. A full year away is a long time in a league that punishes slow reads in the neutral zone.
His agent, Andy Scott, told LeBrun earlier this month that his client is healthy and skating daily. ESPN's Emily Kaplan reported he has no intention of signing in Europe.
Detroit and Calgary both explored him and walked away. So what does Los Angeles see that they didn't?
The pedigree, for starters. He went second overall to Winnipeg in 2016, scored 44 goals in 2017-18 and owns 224 goals and 422 points over 537 NHL games.
Think of him like a closer coming back from elbow surgery. The fastball might still be there, but nobody knows until he faces live hitters.
Peter Laviolette's problem runs deeper than one shooter. Brandt Clarke has gone minus-7 through seven games, and Darcy Kuemper owns an .869 save percentage.
Laine fixes none of that. He went minus-14 in his last full season in Montreal, and the Kings already bleed 3.9 goals a night.
A cheap, one-year deal for a second-unit power-play shooter makes sense. Promising him top-six minutes before he proves he can keep pace would be a bad idea.
Cap room is the other wrinkle. Drew Doughty and Panarin carry $11,000,000 each, Kempe sits at $10,625,000, and Laine's last deal paid $8,700,000 a season.
Nobody is paying that number again. The real question is whether Holland can squeeze a low-cost contract under the ceiling without moving a body.
Injuries could force his hand. Byfield is day-to-day with an upper-body injury, and Alex Turcotte is on IR until at least October 26.
The schedule won't offer much relief. After Long Island, the road trip rolls into New Jersey, then a back-to-back against the Rangers and Blackhawks on October 26 and 27.
Strange as it sounds, the road might be friendlier. Los Angeles is 0-3-0 at home and 1-1-2 away.
Another week of empty power plays and this stops being a rumor. Whether Holland trusts a shot that hasn't been fired in an NHL game for a year is still anybody's guess.
Should Ken Holland sign Patrik Laine before the Kings' road trip ends?
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