Veteran Center Adam Henrique Still Unsigned As Camp Approaches
The 36-year-old center spent last season with the Edmonton Oilers, but that stint ended on a rough note.
Henrique appeared in 65 regular-season games and managed just three goals and 15 points, a steep drop-off for a player who had scored at least 11 goals in each of his first 14 NHL seasons.
Why The Market Has Stayed Cold
The underlying numbers explain the hesitation better than the raw totals do.
Henrique's five-on-five goal share fell to a career-low 34.8 percent last season, a red flag for a veteran already on the wrong side of 35. He also dealt with multiple injuries throughout the year, limiting him to a bottom-six role for most of it rather than the more featured minutes he'd played earlier in his career.
Rico gets his silver stick ✨
— NHLPA (@NHLPA) October 21, 2025
Congratulations to Adam Henrique, who with the @EdmontonOilers is playing in his 1,000th NHL game tonight! pic.twitter.com/zaC6l4VNJP
Henrique is still among the notable names remaining on the board, a group that also includes fellow veterans like Michael Bunting, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Patrik Laine.
What He Still Brings
It isn't as if Henrique has nothing left to offer.
He carried a 54 percent faceoff percentage last season and ranked eighth on the Oilers in fewest defensive-zone giveaways, and he's been a fixture on penalty-kill units for essentially his entire career.
The Hockey Writers argued as recently as this month that he "deserves to be on an NHL roster" for exactly that reason, pointing to his reliability in a checking and faceoff role even as his offensive totals have faded.
That argument floated a reunion with the New Jersey Devils, the team that drafted Henrique in 2008 and where he spent his first eight NHL seasons, as one team that could use his faceoff ability and defensive reliability in a bottom-six spot.
It's worth noting that idea has come from outside analysis rather than any reported mutual interest, and no team has been reported as actively pursuing him.
The more likely outcome is that Henrique's path back to the NHL runs through a professional tryout rather than a guaranteed contract. A PTO would let an interested team evaluate him in training camp without financial risk, giving him a chance to prove last season's decline was more of a blip than the start of a permanent downtrend.
