The 2025 training camp has started for every team across the NHL, and if there is anyone who is hoping to have a better camp than last season’s, it’s Patrik Laine. He was just coming back from the player assistance program, looking forward to a fresh start in “la belle province,” when a brutal knee injury in pre-season play sidelined him for months.
Laine noted how emotional the injury was in an interview with NHL.com saying “I fought so hard to get back on the ice, and being excited again, and then second game, second shift, you get hurt again. But that’s just the way it is.”
But the Finnish forward persevered through his rehab and returned to play on December third, 2024, against the Islanders and made an immediate impact on the power-play, hammering home a shot in the second period, and the Bell Centre erupted.
Laine continued a strong first few months back in play, scoring consistently on the man-advantage and was a massive reason the Habs stayed afloat in said months. But as the season wore on, his 5 on 4 prowess dropped, and his play during 5 on 5 spiralled, including his benching for an entire period in a disastrous game against the Blues seemed to be the prevailing tale to close out the regular season.
With such high highs and low lows in 2024-2025, what can we expect from Laine next season?
Martin St. Louis seems optimistic. “The amount of work he put in this summer, I feel we might see the best version of Patty Laine.” The head coach said during the media availability to open training camp.
"The amount of work he put in this summer, I feel we might see the best version of Patty Laine."--Martin St. Louis.
— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) September 17, 2025
And there is a well-founded reason for said optimism. A full offseason of training is a great start, compared to the limited runway he had last season, Laine revealed in an interview with Finnish paper Helsingin Sanomat.
“Last summer, I think I trained for three weeks before the season.”
“Now I’ve been able to train full-time since May. It’s a bit of a different starting point for the season when you don’t have to start out recovering.”
On top of all these other factors, it is a contract year for Laine as he enters his fourth and final year of an 8.7 million dollar per year contract, initially signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
So, what is the “best” of Patrik Laine, and what does a complete season of Patrik Laine look like?
There exist only two examples. Most recently is his 2018-2019 season with the Winnipeg Jets, where Laine put up 30 goals and 20 assists in 82 games, with half of said goals being on the power-play.
Laine’s best season came from the year before, 2017-2018, where in 82 games Laine had 44 goals and 26 assists for 70 points, with 20 goals on the power-play.
Taking “Seeing the best version of Patty” literally as near a 70-point season seems unreasonable for a couple of reasons, but the most obvious seems to be this: he most likely won’t be on the first power-play unit. If I had to guess, and I most certainly am, I would see the return of Suzuki, Hutson, Demidov, Caufield and Slafkovsky as the first unit, with Laine being primed as the triggerman for the second unit.
5 on 5, he may be put in a similar position, with the possibility of being on a line with new kid on the block and outstanding playmaker Ivan Demidov, Laine may find himself in a position to bury more pucks at even strength.
In my eyes, a 45–50-point season from Laine would be fantastic with a full 82 games under his belt. More importantly, though, would be better defensive awareness and responsibility with and without the puck, to keep the pressure up, and keep his team from climbing out of the depths of a deficit.
Either way, fingers are crossed for a full and productive 82 from number 92.