When Patrick Kane’s name first entered the throes of trade speculation early this year, there were as many skeptics as believers that the Chicago Blackhawks would ever move on from their franchise-defining superstar. One of the greatest American players of all time and a slam-dunk top-five Blackhawk of all time, Kane’s play has been the defining part of the most successful on-ice period in Chicago’s history.
The team is in a landslide now, though, going 2-9-4 in their past 15 games after a 4-2-0 start to the year. While this poor play was expected, maybe even intended, with the shimmering status of 2023’s top prospects, The Athletic’s Mark Lazerus believes that Kane, while he remains inextricably tied to Chicago and could quickly return as a free agent next offseason, “doesn’t seem to be having that much fun out there” and could opt for a trade to a contender at this year’s deadline.
After shattering point-per-game paces for the past four seasons, even as the quality of the team dwindled around him, Kane’s performance is taking a step back in 2022-23. The 34-year-old right wing has 16 points and just three goals through 21 games on the year, on pace for just 62 points over a full campaign. It would be a career-low for him, excluding the shortened 2012-13 season (55 points in 47 games).
The three-time Stanley Cup champion is coming up on 1,200 career points and seems to have still at least a few seasons of competitive hockey left in him. Those seasons could still come in Chicago, coming back next season with more young prospects on the NHL roster for him to work with. But with the superstar finally seeming to start his decline, a trade may be one of Kane’s last chances to play on a contending team.
I feel a sorry for a player of Patrick Kane’s stature to be in a situation that screams, “Why do I have to see my career go like this?” Even though he’s seen other players have this happen to them, a guy that is on the receiving end will sometimes be in denial when it comes to their own situation. I hope Kane isn’t in denial, but maybe reality is dealing a rough blow at the moment.
I don’t feel sorry for him in the least.
He demanded an astronomical contract at the time (and Toews) and that means the team can’t fill out the roster and gets worse and worse.
He made his bed.
Kane and Toews contracts aren’t the reason the Hawks are where they are now. It’s all the other misguided deals that Bowman made over the years that hamstrung this team and led to this situation. Brian Bickell, Brent Seabrook, even Seth Jones. Kane has been worth every penny and then some.
@DevilShark – The “Hawks are as guilty as many other teams in believing the B.S. revenue growth predictions by the NHL. Even without COVID, they weren’t realistic, but so many teams have cap mismanagement issues now, that those players that were overpaid a little (or a lot, depending on your view), are now stuck or nearly stuck on teams that are languishing. The reason I feel that way for Patrick Kane is that he hasn’t shown to be a dislikeable guy, even with the one off-ice issue. Unfortunately for him, reality is now slapping him in the face.
@Rwegner Meh, if Toews and Kane sign for 8mil each they have another 4 mil of wiggle room to build a decent team. You can absolve them because of Bowman all you like – the template of “a couple of big stars getting paid big” doesn’t work. Kane is complicit. Kopitar and Doughty in LA. Marner, Tavares and Matthews in Toronto. Karlsson in SJ. Even McJeus. Doesn’t matter how good they are or if they are worth it – they are all complicit in their teams not being top calibre.
@Macjab
I think he seems nice. I think he is an amazing player.
Just in terms of: “Why do I have to see my career go like this?”
I agree with you: “Unfortunately for him, reality is now slapping him in the face.”
@DevilShark—And that is a shame. It seems like for every player we get to see “go out on his own terms”, there are a number of the other guys who have to suffer, even though it is occasionally due to their own decision to stay and clean up after the proverbial lava flow. BTW, I, personally, would love to see him play into his forties, if he’d like.
@DavilShark Kopitar & Doughty and Kane & Toews have won how many Cups in the last 12 years? This is a really bad take. You have to lock up your stars and build around them, after 2015 Bowman crapped the bed in that department and there really is no argument against it.
So glad Sid wasn’t born in November or December.
If he (and then Geno, Letang) demanded top dollar when they could have, we don’t win in 16 or 17.
@forwhomjoshbelltolled—Good point.
@ rwegner I don’t normally entertain lazy internet citizens but I’ll bite this once…
Chicago winning record since Toews and Kane signed their monster contracts = 45.6%
Chicago total point percentage since Toews and Kane signed = 47.3%
The first 2 years of their contracts they finished 5th and then 3rd in the NHL. Both seasons they were bounced in the first round. The highest theyve finished since then is 20th. They made the play ins during the covid season despite having the 23rd best record and were again bounced in the first round.
For the $21 million they’ve gotten an overall losing record in 8 years, they’ve won 4 playoff games in 8 years, they’ve never won a playoff round.
Tell me again how it is a bad take to say paying a couple of monster contracts tanks a team?
It sure as hell is a bad take for a GM to pay a player for past performance. Doesn’t matter how popular your take is, 8 years of pain in the windy city and a boat load of stats don’t support your opinion. I invite you to take 20 minutes to do a similar analysis of the L.A kings. Good day.
@forwhom yours is a hot take for sure. The reason the Pens have had sustained success for 15 years is because their stars took enough and no more. Crosby is, was, will be head and shoulders above Toews and Kane including intangibles and yet signed a contract for almost $2M AAV less than Toews and Kane just 2 seasons earlier. At the same time Toews and Kane demanded 10.5 Geno got 9.5. Letang got $7.25. They’ve had sustained playoff appearances and sustained success throughout the contracts despite major injuries and illnesses to these three stars and even managed 2 cups DURING the contracts. It’s a totally different picture.
Yeah, I’m with DevilShark. We all know the players that Chicago had to dump because they couldn’t afford them. The first set of large extensions to Kane, Toews and Keith cost them Byfuglien, Ladd, Versteeg and Saad. The current set forced them to deal Panarin.
And we can think of other teams other than Pittsburgh where the stars took less to keep the team going. During the last six seasons, while the Hawks have been sucking and mostly missing the playoffs, Boston’s been in the playoffs every year and won two games for every one they’ve lost: because their stars have been willing to take below-market salaries. It’s really the mark of success for teams these days: superstars NOT making eight figures.
The current contracts on Letang and Geno will not weather well and may be why this “old” team is not doing well as of late against cup contenders.
Most likely outcome…
He gets traded to the Rangers at the deadline.
Signs with the Sabres in the off season.
Why would he sign in Buffalo? I know he’s from there, but what would he see in Buffalo that would make him think they can win anything in the next 3 yrs?
Watch them.
They are loaded with young talent.
Thompson, Tuch, Dahlin, Cozens are already studs. Power will be. Quinn, Peterka, etc. coming behind them.
Bringing in Kane as their window opens would be very analogous to the Hawks adding Hossa to their young mix back in 2010.
I imagine the Sabres are thinking the same thing. And it would definitely be something to watch. Wow
I just got done watching them play the bolts tonight and they are oozing talent. They are all young and need some games to gel but they are loaded and are gonna be contenders in the not so distant future. They have 13 1st round picks on the team right now, according to engblom on the bolts broadcast. Even if they all dont pan out the pedigree is there for sure
The two teams I watch most on ESPN + are EDM (McDavid, easy call) and BUF.
The Sabres play fun hockey.
Tage Thompson, in particular, just keeps getting better. I no longer think the Sabres need a 1C. They have one.
Thompson looks like a monster in waiting, if not already arrived. 25 at 6′ 7″ and has speed and handle like that?
Maybe stick him next to Barzal on Long Island – be a good fit. Either way, he isn’t being traded until the deadline to get his cap hit down.
The Bruins are awaiting for you Patrick Kane .
Blackhawks need to trade Kane. They’re going nowhere this year. Move him for the best possible package to expedite getting back into the playoff mix.
So who are the top 5 Blackhawks of all time… I have Hull, Mikita, Esposito, Kane and Toews? What about Magnuson, Keith, Glenn Hall….
Savard, Larmer and Chelios not exactly chopped liver, either.
Toews in the TOP FIVE?? Recentism run amok. I think it’d be a struggle for him to make the top twenty. He’s had a very good career, but I think he’s borderline even for the HHOF, and without playing on Cup winning teams he wouldn’t get in. A single 2nd team All-Star nod. A single Selke. The Smythe, of course. But that’s it. He’s never led the league in anything. Heck, he’s only led his own team in scoring twice.
Naming him over Glenn Hall, who won two Vezinas, had EIGHT All-Star Team nods and was in the top six for Hart voting seven times as a Black Hawk? (You got to figure he’d have had a Smythe too, if it was awarded in 1961.) Naming him over Pierre Pilote, who had five straight First-Team All-Star nods to go with three straight Norrises, and was an All-Star and Norris finalist eight more times combined? Over Doug Bentley’s four All-Star Team nods and three times Hart finalist votes?
Not easy, but I’d go with Hull, Mikita, Pilote, Hall and Kane. Tony O and Keith were great, but which of the others would anyone bump to include them?
Keith Magnuson; huh. I doubt I’d include him in the Hawks top HUNDRED. I know they retired his number (well, Boston retired Terry O’Reilly’s, and Washington retired Yvon F’n Labre’s), because he was a beloved figure who hit a lot of people in his playing days and died young … and they folded him in with Pilote, who’d they traded more than 40 years before anyway.
But Magnuson just wasn’t all that good. He had some acclaim his first couple seasons, but after that he was chronically injured and not very effective. Honestly, I remember him most because the only top five list he’d ever have made was of the highest ratio of players who were (a) eager to get into fights, and (b) were terrible fighters. The number of times he lurched off the ice, face covered in blood, and still grinning like mad …
I tried to edit me response to remove Toews from the top 5, but i was not able to. In thinking about this more, I’d rate Glenn Hall, Dennis Savard, Pierre Pilote, Chris Chelios, and Doug Bently over Toews for sure. However what gives Toews the edge is his 3 Cups. Will be interesting to see what anyone else thinks….
I think I’d rate Toews above Savard, actually. I loved Savard, used him as an example of beautiful hockey to my first wife (who came to the sport late, but long after Orr). But adjusted for era he didn’t outscore Toews by all that much, and Toews has been a much superior defensive player. At peak value, Chelios was clearly superior, but at what point does his nine seasons as a Hawk take a backseat to fifteen?
But anyway, I had my first five. My second five would be Esposito, Keith, Bentley, Charlie Gardiner, and Earl Seibert.
This to me is the biggest reason the Blackhawks are flailing. Bowman made too many “chips all in” moves (some of them really bad… like Fleishmann and Weise for Philip Denault… yikes). If he just followed the Pens method of taking a few down years and letting the young kids develop instead of jettisoning them all for marginal vets this team could still be contending. Imagine a team with 88/19 but add in Teuvo, Denault, Schmaltz (who’s played fairly well since landing in AZ), DeBrincat, Hagel, etc. Even some of the cheap guys Bowman just refused to give playing time and second contracts too.. Jan Rutta, a 2nd line pairing on back to back Cup winning TB, Kubalik, TVR, Gustav Frosling… you could piece together a great team under the salary cap keeping most or all of those together. Granted some of them were through picks we may not have had etc, but the point is SB let a lot of talent walk out of the UC and onto other playoff caliber rosters as integral pieces. And I didn’t even include Panarin in this as keeping him would have been highly improbable.
“If he just followed the Pens method of taking a few down years and letting the young kids develop.”
Did you mean the Kings? When did the Pens do this?
We had many years where we fell short (sometimes embarrassingly so like 2012) but never stopped trying to win.
And our (not particularly heralded at the time) young players were all developed fully in the AHL before being brought up ready to contribute (Murray, Rust, Guentzel, etc.) rather than growing in the NHL.
Hilarious to say Kane only has a few good seasons left in him. This is a team sport. He needs help and a trade will rebound all of his counting stats. Just like every other superstar when there is talent around them. Kane’s conditioning regiment will keep him in the league until his mid-40’s, easily.
Err … Kane does have some hockey left in him, but your post is what’s hilarious. The number of players who’ve been regulars in their mid-40s in the entire history of the NHL you can name on the fingers of one hand: Howe. Chara. Chelios. Jagr. Horton. That’s IT.
Again, we’re talking about the greatest US born player ever. He doesn’t play an overly physical style (avoids contact) and it’s well documented that his training regiment is top tier. 10 more seasons easily, maybe 12. Just don’t wait that long to change your tampon.