Kyle Davidson did his fair share of talking about both the immediate and long term future of the franchise on Tuesday afternoon. But, of course, the assembled media wasn’t going to let him escape his re-introductory presser without addressing the future of Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, in particular.
Rightfully so, Davidson made it clear that he’ll be taking the opinions of two of the greatest players in franchise history’s view on how things should look for the Blackhawks as they embark on a rebuild.
Kyle Davidson on whether or not he'll be consulting the team's biggest stars in this process: "Jonathan [Toews] and Patrick [Kane] are extremely important pieces to the organization," Davidson said. "They're definitely going to be brought into the loop." #Blackhawks
— Patrick K. Flowers (@PatrickKFlowers) March 1, 2022
Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews each have just one more year of team control remaining, and not a cheap year at that ($10.5 million apiece next season). So, while taking their thoughts on the impending rebuild into account is essential (and an excellent start for Davidson), it’s perfectly conceivable to imagine that the pair of three-time Stanley Cup Champions might not want to be a part of a long-term rebuild.
“There’s probably a lot of time to determine what’s going to happen in that regard,” Kane said after practice this morning. “But let’s be honest, I love Chicago, I love the city, I love the fans, the organization’s been great been amazing to me and family. There’s really not much to [not] like here.
“I think there’s always business decisions. In the game of hockey, there are not many guys that play their whole career with one team, so it would be a privilege and an honor to do that. But I guess we’ll see how it all plays out.”
"I think there's always business decisions. … There's not many guys that play their whole career with one team. So it would be a privilege and an honor to do that. But I guess we'll see how it all plays out."-Patrick Kane on staying with the Blackhawks through a rebuild pic.twitter.com/raCNTRbaIe
— Phillip Thompson (@_phil_thompson) March 2, 2022
I can’t imagine that one of Kyle Davidson’s first moves would be to move on from Patrick Kane after he’s now made it clear that he wants to be here for the rest of his career. So, it seems likely – for now – that Patrick Kane will be here for the long haul.
But that immediately leads to the next question: What does a contract extension for Kane even look like? I wrote about hypothetical contract extensions for Kane and Toews recently, and you’re more than welcome to check that out if you choose, but for this post, we’ll avoid getting too deep into the numbers.
I’ll say this, though, Patrick Kane likely isn’t taking a discount for the Blackhawks, nor does his play warrant one. So, he’ll cost them, if they want to keep him. As for Jonathan Toews, well, I really don’t know. I don’t know how much he feels he has left in the tank. I don’t know how Davidson and the Blackhawks view him long-term, and I don’t know whether or not he wants to be here. That’s all to say; we’ll have to wait and see on that front.
In the meantime, it’s refreshing to hear Patrick Kane dispel any concern that he might not want to be in Chicago with the Blackhawks embarking on what could be a lengthy one.