{"id":644475,"date":"2026-08-17T17:39:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T17:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/644475\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T17:39:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T17:39:19","slug":"ny-islanders-reportedly-back-away-from-patrik-laine-after-cautious-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/644475\/","title":{"rendered":"NY Islanders reportedly back away from Patrik Laine after cautious interest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Patrik Laine<\/a> remains one of the most intriguing available players in NHL free agency. The Montreal Canadiens have made it clear they have no interest in bringing the 28-year-old winger back to Quebec. The New York Islanders emerged as a potential landing spot at one point, but it appears that is no longer the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe noise that I heard about Patrik Laine came on Day 1 of NHL<\/a> free agency and Day 1 of NHL free agency only,\u201d Stefen Rosner reported on The Elmonters. \u201cThe Islanders had talks with Laine\u2019s camp. I didn\u2019t believe they were willing to offer anything more than a PTO.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the Islanders<\/a> were only interested in signing Laine to a professional tryout and the Finnish winger\u2019s camp stood its ground, then it\u2019s easy to see why talks between the two sides fell apart. <\/p>\n

More than a month has passed since the start of free agency, and the buzz around Laine remains relatively dull, with the Islanders falling behind other candidates. Maybe Laine will land with a New York team, just not the one on Long Island.<\/p>\n

\"Patrik<\/p>\n

Patrik Laine at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.<\/p>\n

NY Rangers and others interested in Laine<\/p>\n

While the Islanders are reportedly showing their doubts about Laine and taking a backseat, their cross-town foes, the New York Rangers, appear to be more daring. A report from the Montreal Gazette placed the Rangers among the frontrunners for Laine as the Canadiens give up<\/a> the once-lethal sniper to the highest bidder.<\/p>\n

The Broadway Blueshirts aren\u2019t the only ones in on the Laine sweepstakes, however. The Toronto Maple Leafs have been linked to the former Habs winger for a while now and remain arguably the safest bet to land him. Other candidates include the Tampa Bay Lightning, Philadelphia Flyers, and Minnesota Wild. <\/p>\n

Figuring out Laine<\/p>\n

As long as Laine remains an unrestricted free agent (UFA) in the NHL, however, every organization has a shot at him. Laine is up for grabs; the issue is that many teams are wary of pursuing him after watching his production drop to a bare minimum and concerns about his availability multiply rather than quiet down in recent seasons. Regardless, if any team can get Laine back to his best, it will be getting a top weapon. <\/p>\n

The gist of the problem is figuring out whether the embers of Laine\u2019s once red-hot scoring touch can still be reignited or whether they are a thing of the past. Figuring that out while avoiding a contract that could come back to bite an organization is the main issue and what is slowing down any progress between Laine and his camp.<\/p>\n

Apparently, the Islanders have made up their minds and feel better off without him. Maybe they will have a sudden change of heart in the future, perhaps too late, or perchance just in the nick of time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patrik Laine remains one of the most intriguing available players in NHL free agency. The Montreal Canadiens have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[5,122,3328,159,5190,5189,4,640],"class_list":["post-644475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-islanders","tag-hockey","tag-islanders","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-islanders","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkislanders","tag-nhl","tag-patrik-laine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117112076177703263","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}