It’s been a good summer for Montreal Canadiens’ sniper Patrik Laine. The big Finn spent most of his summer in town, regularly hitting the ice at the team’s training facility in Brossard. Still, this past weekend, he was back in Finland for a very important event, the charity golf tournament he co-hosts with Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov.
The tournament, held at the Nokia golf course in Finland, aims to raise funds for the mental health of children and young people. All proceeds from this year’s event were given to the Tempere Children’s Hospital Support Association. The funds will be used to support the new psychiatric hospital for children and teenagers.
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Each team wishing to enter the tournament had to pay the 1,000 Euros entry fee and could also upgrade to the silver or gold package, which allowed their business to sponsor a hole or be advertised as one of the lead partners of the event.
On top of the entry fees and advertising opportunities, the event also included an auction on various sports memorabilia like Laine’s game-used skates from the 4 Nations Face-Off or Barkov’s game-used skates from the Stanley Cup semifinals. Both players also had VIP packages for two home games of their respective teams this upcoming season, along with an autographed jersey.
For those not wishing to travel across the pond, there was also a VIP package for the NHL Global Series, which will be held in Stockholm, Sweden. Another item, a Game Changer Training Platform document autographed by 29 NHL stars, including Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Connor Bedard, John Tavares, and the late Johnny Gaudreau.
The auction wasn’t just about hockey, though. For the golf enthusiasts, there was also a VIP ticket to the Nokia golf club and Sami Välimäki’s driver, which he used when he played on the PGA Tour in 2024.
At the event, Laine also gave an interview to Finnish media Helsingin Sanomat in which he spoke about how busy his Summer was with his wedding to Jordan Leigh, and training uninterrupted by injuries this offseason. He explained that since the beginning of July, he’s been on the ice almost every day alongside some of his Canadiens’ teammates. This should make a real difference for the snipper, who could only train for a month and a half after shoulder surgery last summer.
He readily admits that his big shot just wasn’t enough when he didn’t have proper training in the offseason. He believes things will be different this time around with an appropriate summer training regimen and not having to nurse an injury before getting down to serious business. While he’s about to enter the last year of his contract, the Finn explains that it makes little difference to him whether he’s in the first or later year of a contract; there are always trade rumours. His goal is to have fun, because that’s where success comes from, when you work hard and the team wins.
He does mention, however, that it will be different to have his destiny in his own hands next offseason, when he can choose where he wants to play rather than have to play for the team that owns his rights.
It will be interesting to see how Laine performs at training camp. While he had a good season in his first year as a member of the Canadiens, it didn’t exactly end well since his lack of commitment to the defensive side of the game led to his demotion in the lineup and to less power-play playing time.
Now that he’s fully healthy and there will be internal competition to know who gets to play with all-star rookie Ivan Demidov, Laine might have to turn the intensity up a notch to earn the privilege to skate alongside the organization’s most prized prospect. There’s no certainty as to who would be centering the line, though, especially not with doubts about whether Kirby Dach will be ready to go from the start of the season, as mentioned by GM Kent Hughes himself.
The fact that he mentioned the possibility of being able to choose his path once he becomes a UFA at the end of the coming season seems to indicate that he may want to be able to test the market rather than sign an extension with the Canadiens before his contract expires. Even if that’s the case, it would be surprising to see Hughes trade him before the end of the season if the Canadiens are involved in the race to the playoffs like they were last season. The Habs’ GM has shown he doesn’t mind letting free agents walk away with no compensation if he feels that keeping them till the end will benefit the team, like with Joel Armia and Christian Dvorak.
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