Welcome to another edition of Full Press Hockey’s NHL Rumors! The regular season is underway. There is still a prominent unrestricted free agent who still needs a deal and a decision is coming real soon. That player is Patrick Kane and the hockey world is watching where he will go.
And that is the subject of today’s NHL Rumors looking at where Patrick Kane will land.
NHL Rumors: Who Will Sign Patrick Kane?
One of the biggest free agents remaining on the board is three-time Stanley Cup Champion Patrick Kane. There has been a lot of talk recently on where Kane will sign. We know he wants to go to a contender, where he has a chance to win another Stanley Cup. However, those teams are few and far between, considering most are up against the salary cap. Those teams would have to move some dollars around to fit him into the cap.
And what type of contract is Kane actually looking for? We know from reports that he wants to play for another two to three seasons. But health will be a determining factor in what type of deal he gets. Is it a one-year deal for just this season, or is it a multi-year deal?
Over the summer, Kane had hip resurfacing surgery. Now, it was not to the extent of Nicklas Backstrom, who had to step away from the Washington Capitals this season, and there are uncertainties surrounding his future, but nevertheless, Kane still had surgery done on his hip. And we saw last season how much he was hampered by that injury not only in the regular season but the postseason with the New York Rangers as well.
Nobody expects Patrick Kane to be the player of old, but he has expectations for himself. However, as it has been from the start of this process, Kane wanted to be 100 percent healthy before making a decision. And some teams are a little weary of how healthy he actually is. And if that is the case, that list of six to eight teams shrunk to about three or four teams.
One team that has been ruled out, at least for now, is the New York Rangers. According to Larry Brooks, the Rangers did not have an interest in bringing him back. However, according to Emily Kaplan of ESPN, Kane wanted to run it back with the Rangers. He wanted to see what it was like in New York playing with a healthy hip. Again, the cap space is difficult for the Rangers to make this work similar to last year, where Kane forced his way there.
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But where else could the free-agent winger end up?
From the start, it has always been the Dallas Stars, Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings, and Colorado Avalanche. The Florida Panthers have entered the mix now, along with the Vegas Golden Knights as a possibility. Again, it comes down to where Kane and his family want to settle down and whether he wants to travel like he used to when he played for the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Stars, Red Wings, and Panthers all make sense. All of them are legit Stanley Cup Contenders. Patrick Kane will bring his experience to each one of those rosters. He knows players in Dallas like Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, and Joe Pavelski. And wouldn’t it be crazy if Kane is the one who helped Pavelski win a Stanley Cup?
Detroit makes sense, too, because of his former Blackhawks teammate Alex DeBrincat. Buffalo might be a long shot right now because they are not where many people expected them to be at this time, which makes Florida an interesting situation.
Does Florida really need Kane? Their roster is littered with talented players, from Matthew Tkachuk to Aleksander Barkov to Sam Reinhart to Aaron Ekblad on defense. Kane would most certainly have to take a discount to go to Florida, but with no state tax, it would be equivalent to someplace else like Toronto, for instance.
By the way, the Maple Leafs are not signing Patrick Kane, even with John Klingberg on LTIR. Toronto is interested in a defenseman. Florida makes sense, but again, how long do they want to commit? And what is the dollar amount?
A couple of other teams that could come out of nowhere are teams like the Pittsburgh Penguins and Anaheim Ducks. Both were mentioned by Full Press Hockey’s own Russ Cohen on the latest edition of the Full Press NHL Podcast.
The Ducks are an interesting case, considering they are still in the thick of things in the West, and they have a nice young and up-and-coming roster that might soon Kane. But it is the West Coast, and the Western Conference travel might be an issue.
Patrick Kane remains on course to make a decision in the next week or two; it is just a matter of where. It feels like it will come down to Detroit, Dallas, or Florida.