NEWSLETTER
After the Blackhawks’ morning skate on Friday, Patrick Kane was quickly surrounded by media. The first questions that came centered around the New York Rangers making a big trade for a right wing — that wasn’t Patrick Kane.
In a surprisingly candid moment, Kane admitted he wasn’t thrilled when he heard the Rangers had made a move, consuming their remaining cap space and effectively eliminated them from acquiring Lane before the deadline (barring something unexpected between now and then). Even though Kane acknowledged he still hasn’t made a decision about his own future, the Rangers were definitely a team he had an eye on during the process.
The gamble that Kane and the Blackhawks are all taking — one they simply have to in many cases because of the cap constraints his $10.5 million cap hit creates — is that teams that might be a fit for the future Hall of Famer make their deal(s) before he makes a decision. Odds are that many/most of the destinations that have interest in Kane — and in which Kane would have interest — will need to wait until the absolute last second to make the financial components work.
There are a number of other potential suitors out there, some of whom were in the press box on Tuesday (I’ll be watching the attendance in the press box again this evening with another likely seller in the building). Teams like Dallas, Toronto, Edmonton and New Jersey haven’t made a move yet, so Kane and the Blackhawks do still have options.
When asked about the rumors that his hip issue may be giving some teams pause in committing the assets likely required to make a deal for his services, Kane said he feels those concerns are “overblown.”
“I’m not sure what the story is to be honest with you, but I feel better than I did last year,” Kane said. “It’s just one of those things that maybe the story leaks out and it piles up a little bit.”
However, the second half of Kane’s comment cited by Mark Lazerus in the tweets above does remind us that Kane is struggling with mitigating what’s best for an organization that has been his home since he was 18 years old and what he ultimately wants to do. Because those two realities may not align; we’ve been led to believe the organization may want to move on from both Kane and Jonathan Toews.
