Report: According to Patrick Kane’s Agent, ‘Plenty of Contending Clubs’ Are Interested
The NHL’s Trade Deadline is now eight days away, and I’m just as excited as you are to see it pass so we can all go back to business as usual. But until Patrick Kane offers us some resolution — either via trade or saying he’s staying — the rumor mill is going to continue churning.
The amount of speculation has only continued to fly as his play over the past four games has been vintage 88. Yesterday we looked at a collection of rumors; there were indications he would give the Blackhawks a single team of preference to negotiate with, while another listed interested teams.
Dallas, Edmonton and Carolina were mentioned. Then Larry Brooks at the New York Post wrote last night that the Rangers are apparently back to kicking the tires on adding another top-line right wing despite already bringing in Vlad Tarasenko (costing them one of their two first-round picks and maxing out their cap situation).
All of these teams, names, and scenarios are things we’ve been talking about since July. But the clock is ticking, so there’s more immediacy to the discussion now.
So when Kevin Weekes of ESPN tweeted the following on Thursday afternoon, my reactions were:
- Oh, terrific, more Kane rumors.
- A unicorn? Really? and
- Hmm… “plenty of contender clubs are interested”?
First, let’s just note the fact that Weekes has joined the insider game over the past couple seasons and has missed on a few rumors (including the Blackhawks’ head coach hire). But he has good access and has been right his fair share of times.
The fact that he’s sourcing this from Pat Brisson, Kane’s agent, is interesting. And what caught my attention was Kane’s agent promoting the idea that there’s a strong market for his client.
Is that an indication that Kane’s leaning towards leaving at some point in the next eight days?
This looks, feels and smells like an agent driving a free agent bidding war; it’s worth noting that Kane will indeed be an unrestricted free agent this summer, so some of this posturing is undoubtedly preemptively building a market for June and July’s bidding. But it’s also intriguing that Kane’s agent would tell a media member who was undoubtedly going to tweet it that there’s a strong trade market for his client.
As I keep saying, stay tuned because this isn’t going away until we get a decision one way or another.
