While most of the top end of the unrestricted free agent market was picked clean by NHL clubs at the start of the new league year, a few top names remain without a contract for next season. While players such as Vladimir Tarasenko, Tomas Tatar, and Matt Dumba are undoubtedly of interest to many teams across the NHL, the name likely to generate the most attention is that of future Hall of Fame forward Patrick Kane.
Although the soon-to-be-35-year-old Chicago Blackhawks legend’s production declined slightly this past season, his 57 points in 66 games not quite matching the 92 in 78 he posted the year before, Kane is still widely regarded as a top offensive creator in the NHL.
A hip injury that nagged him for most of last season and required offseason surgery likely contributed to that decline, and there is hope that Kane can return to his explosive offensive form when he steps onto the ice next season.
The question regarding Kane, then, has been less about what he’ll be when he returns to full health and instead has focused on where he’ll be when he returns to NHL action.
ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski reports as part of his conversation with Kane’s agent, Pat Brisson, that Kane ” isn’t looking to commit to a team in the summer,” and is instead looking to “take his time to recover” this summer while “keeping an eye on the standings during the opening weeks of the season.”
Under this approach, “Kane will select the suitor he feels is the best fit and with the best chance of winning the Stanley Cup” at the point when he’s ready to return to the ice, which could be before December. This would allow Kane to not only have a clearer sense of which teams offer him the best chance of winning his fourth Stanley Cup, it could also allow for Kane to join a team that currently does not have the salary cap space to sign him.
For example, a team could see one of its higher-priced players go down to a long-term injury, resulting in that player getting placed on long-term injured reserve. The resulting salary cap flexibility could allow a team previously unable to afford Kane to add him to their roster.
A team such as the Colorado Avalanche, for example, are a club that could be of interest to Kane but would almost certainly need to place the contract of injured captain Gabriel Landeskog on long-term injured reserve in order to be able to fit a Kane signing.
Given how much more frequent in-season LTIR placements have become, (the reigning Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights had captain Mark Stone on LTIR from early January until the playoffs) that could be the path for Kane to end up on a team he most prefers.
But for that to happen, he has to wait until he’s ready to hit the ice (and until a month or two of NHL games have been played) in order to sign his deal. So while Kane is still the top free agent on the open market, he’s likely to remain a free agent long past the other remaining names have found teams.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
