Canadiens' Patrik Laine could still help Montreal in playoffs originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

There's been no indication that Patrik Laine will return during the playoffs.

But if the Montreal Canadiens wanted to shake things up, maybe Laine would be the perfect solution.

The Canadiens have a Game 7 on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Lightning to determine who makes it out of the first round. And maybe if Montreal had Laine available to them earlier, they would've advanced already.

Unfortunately, an abdominal injury has held Laine out of all but five games this season.

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The good news for Montreal is that if it wanted to bring Laine off of long-term injured reserve, it could.

"FYI, if he was activated, despite his huge AAV, the Habs would still be playoff-cap compliant," wrote Daily Faceoff's Matt Larkin in a new article on Friday.

Laine's injury has been a bit mysterious, and there never has been a super firm timeline on when he might return.

Montreal fans can dream, even if at this point it'd be a surprise for Laine to play again this season.

He's got to play hockey again at some point though, right? Maybe he could pull a heroic comeback like the New York Knicks' Willis Reed did more than half a century ago.

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The Canadiens are certainly missing one particular skill of Laine's -- his power play work.

"Even this lesser version of Laine leads all NHL players in goals and shots per 60 on the power play since the start of 2023-24," Larkin writes.

Don't hold your breath for a comeback. But if Laine wanted to make it back on the ice, the Canadiens could probably accommodate that.

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