NEWSLETTER
Yeah, I’m getting as sick of the “my team will give the Blackhawks [less than Chicago fans expect] for Patrick Kane” trade rumors just like you are. But when a former player talks, especially one who works in hockey media in Canada, confidently throws a comment out there it tends to get some attention.
On Tuesday — with the backdrop of the Blackhawks playing in Toronto on Wednesday, former NHL defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo jumped on TSN 1050 in Toronto and threw his former employer into the Kane derby.
Colaiacovo spent the first six of his 14 years in the NHL with the Leafs, who drafted him 17th overall in 2001. He’s currently an analyst for TSN 1050 in Toronto. Is this him throwing some buzz out there the afternoon before Chicago visits their Original Six foe? Or is there some smoke behind this potential fuego?
The Leafs have their first round pick for this year but no second rounder. They have also been said to not want to part ways with forward prospect Matthew Knies, their second-round pick in 2021 who has 31 points in 30 games for the University of Minnesota this season. But one would have to imagine one of the first rounder and/or Knies would need to be included if we’re now talking about Kane and not McCabe.
Toronto will reportedly be able to activate Auston Matthews off IR in time for tomorrow’s game — someone Kane has talked about playing with in the Olympics but hasn’t had the chance. But the Leafs have what projects to be under $300,000 in cap space at the deadline (per CapFriendly). They have plenty of guys in walk years if they wanted to include one or two, but we’ve been trying to make the financial gymnastics work for them to acquire Jake McCabe at $2 million (assuming the Blackhawks retain half of his cap hit for two more years after this one) for a while now.
So Kane at half of $10.5 million? Seems like a tough buy at this point. Even if a third team enters the chat to take on some more of Kane’s money off the books.
Toronto just watched the Rangers add Vlad Tarasenko and Boston isn’t going away, so if a team north of the border is going to get desperate and make a huge splash it might be them (though Edmonton is reportedly trying to figure out how to land Erik Karlsson). So stay tuned on this one…
