San Jose Sharks forward Evander Kane has cleared waivers and is expected to be assigned to the AHL. Previous reports have made it clear that the Sharks would retain salary in order to facilitate a trade of the veteran forward, and Kane’s new agent Dan Milstein of Gold Star Hockey told Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK TV that there are “multiple options on the table.” Milstein even included the Vancouver Canucks specifically as one of the teams he will be contacting as he tries to get his client a new home.
Remember that once Kane is activated from his suspension, assigning him to the minor leagues will not remove his entire cap hit from the Sharks books, nor will it mean the team owes him any less in salary. His $7MM cap hit would only be reduced by $1.125MM and the remainder of his salary would need to be paid out. So far in the season his cap hit was removed because of the 21-game suspension he received for violating league COVID protocols, but that expired when the Sharks defeated the Chicago Blackhawks last night.
It’s unclear at this point whether Kane will actually suit up for the Barracuda, but perhaps playing AHL games would be beneficial to both sides if a trade is to be worked out. Of course, despite all of the off-ice issues that have followed Kane around for most of his career, he’s coming off an excellent season with the Sharks in 2020-21. In the team’s 56 games, he registered 22 goals and 49 points, the best per-game rate of his career.
Professional sports organizations are often willing to overlook off-ice (or field, or court) transgressions because of the skill of a player, and it is important to note that Kane was cleared of both the gambling and domestic abuse investigations that the NHL held this offseason. Whether a team will take the chance on him remains to be seen, but his time with the Sharks does appear to be over, at least for now.
Philly need some change. come on down!
Was firing Bergevin the only way to stop him from trading for Kane?
Anywhere except San Jose !!
If the players don’t want him in the locker room,
then I don’t want him in San Jose……………
Could maybe see Vancouver or Ottawa taking a roll of the dice since their GM’s could be on the hot seat, but the optics would look terrible.
Vancouver? They’re already deep into cap hell and almost certainly expecting the Sharks to take an even worse contract back.
According to spotrac.com Vancouver is right at salary cap $81.5 million, so any move say Evander Kane , Canucks would have to move salary out so Benning and Greene should be drawing straws soon to make some trades to bring in Kane. Hope they keep the Green men, if still around as haven’t seen them play yet in Vancouver at least might be more entertaining the way Canucks are playing
link to spotrac.com
What does either Ottawa or Vancouver GAIN by trading for Kane? Neither’s going anywhere this season, Kane on the top of his form isn’t changing that, and you got to figure that playing for a losing team — which after all he’s done for most of his career — isn’t like to help his disposition any.
The only ones who you think would take the risk would be teams (a) on the playoff bubble with (b) lots of cap space, and (c) don’t mind that his contract still has three more years to run. Even if it wasn’t way too early in the season to know, there are going to be damn few teams in that category.
Tranger, what do you think of Arizona as an option? Lots of cap space and their GM, Bill Armstrong, is the tyoe of guy who would have the gonads to make that kind of bold and brazen move. Kane would be a perfect guy for their organization. Thoughts?
For his sake hopefully Vegas isn’t interested
I think past issues will keep him off the Pens radar but they could always use additional help with as soft as they are
My dark-horse bet is Nashville
Panthers need this guy to go all-in.
Ah hell no!
Kane (retain $3M) + ’22 1st and 3rd for Brock Boeser and Ferland’s contract