Well, so much for that homecoming. According to Bob McKenzie of TSN, the talks between the Vancouver Canucks and Buffalo Sabres on a possible Evander Kane deal are dead (for now). McKenzie does admit that there had been a dialogue, but how close the two teams got to a deal is still unclear.
Over the past few months, there have been on-again-off-again rumors surrounding a possible interest in bringing Evander Kane back to Vancouver, where he grew up and played his junior hockey. While his troubled history with the Sabres continued, many saw it as a possible fresh start for the power forward.
This deal has been rumored going back to the summer, but heated up in the last few days after McKenzie mentioned on Tuesday that the two had started discussing a possible trade again. Remember however, that it was also the Minnesota Wild who were talking to the Sabres about a possible deal earlier this month, and have not yet been ruled out.
If Kane is to move somewhere, it would be the second time a franchise has moved on from him after not being able to settle his off-ice activity. The Winnipeg Jets benched Kane, scratched him and asked him to quit social media amid a long-list of clashes between he and, well, Â basically everyone else around him. It hasn’t stopped in Buffalo, as the troubled star has had multiple run-ins with the law and simply hasn’t been all that effective when he’s on the ice.
Whichever team does acquire him, if he truly is on the move, will have a project on their hands that at this point doesn’t seem fixable. How long will his off-ice antics be tolerated if he continues to struggle in uniform. Currently he has just one point in his first six games this season, after dealing with three cracked ribs early on.