Roope Hintz would have welcomed Patrik Laine in Dallas, and he did not hide that feeling when he spoke to Ilta-Sanomat reporter Teem Suvinen. Hintz said he talks with Laine every day and cannot get his head around why his friend still has not landed even a tryout.
“I’m (Roope Hintz) really upset for him. His last season was ruined by injury, and he still can’t play,” Hintz said.
“I don’t even know he can’t show anything.”
“Hintz would have liked to have Laine arrive in Texas.
There would be seven of us Finns! That would probably be some kind of record. But it’s not in my hands, Hintz says.”
Dallas, though, took a different route. With Matt Duchene set to miss three months after core muscle surgery, general manager Jim Nill signed David Perron on Oct. 16 to a one-year deal at the league minimum of $850,000.
The timing is what makes the whole thing interesting. In North America, Laine’s free agency has become a running list of possible landing spots, with TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reporting that the Calgary Flames and Detroit Red Wings have discussed him. Hintz’s comments pulled that conversation right into the Stars’ room, and Dallas happens to have the exact sort of opening Laine was built to fill.
Hintz has known Laine for years, back to Tampere, where Hintz came up with Ilves and Laine with Tappara, the city’s rival clubs. Laine was also at Hintz’s wedding in August 2024.
Hintz still believes Laine can score in bunches. He said there are not many players like him and that Laine can still put up 40 or 50 goals. He also said he does not push him about contract talks because he figures Laine already hears enough of that.
Still, the reality around Laine is less tidy. He scored 20 goals in 52 games for the Montreal Canadiens in 2024-25, and 15 of those came on the power play.
He has not played an NHL game since Oct. 16, 2025, and Montreal did not put him back in the lineup after core muscle surgery. He is training in Florida while he waits.
Laine remains a risk for teams because of both his health and his personality.
What Hintz wants most, he added, is for Laine to find a team and stay healthy after all the injuries.
From Dallas’ side, the need was clear. The Stars have 19 goals in eight games, a total that sat tied for 27th in the NHL through the weekend, according to NHL.com.
Their power play has managed just three goals on 20 chances, with only eight teams worse. Defensively, there is no issue at all: no team is allowing fewer goals per game than Dallas, which has surrendered 12 in eight games.
That creates a very specific need, and Laine fits it better than almost anybody. He has 85 career power-play goals. But Nill and the Stars appear to have chosen Perron instead.
That choice points to what Dallas valued most: availability. Perron played 65 games last season for the Ottawa Senators and Red Wings, finishing with 13 goals and 28 points.
Over the last three seasons, he has played 184 NHL games. Laine has played 75.
Glen Gulutzan said Monday that he and Nill decided to add Perron after Duchene’s surgery and Oskar Bäck’s broken finger. Jamie Benn said Perron gives the Stars a little more scoring touch, and The Hockey News described the move as a low-risk bet on forward depth.
Perron’s value is mostly at even strength, which is where Dallas needed help. Ten of his 13 goals in 2025-26 came at even strength, while Laine scored five even-strength goals in 2024-25.
Gulutzan also pointed to Perron’s work winning pucks along the walls and his hockey sense, per NHL.com. Laine has never been that kind of player.
Perron also brings 812 career points and a Stanley Cup ring from St. Louis in 2019.
The power-play comparison goes the other way entirely. Laine’s 15 power-play goals in 2024-25 topped Perron’s last three seasons combined, which totaled 14.
But Dallas’ top unit is already crowded. Mikko Rantanen, Wyatt Johnston, Jason Robertson, Miro Heiskanen and Hintz all average more than three minutes of power-play time per night, according to NHL.com, and nobody else is getting much more than one. For Laine to matter there, he would need one of those five spots, Hintz included.
Perron is not exactly a long-term certainty either. He turns 39 in May, and his point total has dropped from 47 in 2023-24 to 28 in 2025-26.
Duchene’s surgery is the same one Laine had a year ago. Dallas is waiting three months on Duchene, while Laine’s agent, Andy Scott, told LeBrun this month that his client is healthy and skating every day.
From the outside, Nill’s move looks like the smaller, safer answer he can count on now rather than the bigger one he cannot. For the moment, Laine’s list of options seems to be shrinking as teams keep passing on the risk.
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