While former Chicago Blackhawks and New York Rangers winger Patrick Kane may be the best UFA left on the market, no one expects him to sign a deal in the coming days.
That’s because he’s still recovering from a hip resurfacing procedure he had done in June, which puts him on track to be cleared for game action sometime between October and December.
Speaking on NHL Network earlier this week , The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta gave various updates on the 34-year-old, including three teams that had displayed “significant” interest earlier in the summer: the Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars and New York Islanders. Pagnotta also mentioned the Boston Bruins as a potential suitor but to a lesser degree.
Undoubtedly, teams will want to watch him practice before extending him a contract, even if it’s just a one-year pact, as expected. A significant hip procedure for an athlete as late into their career as Kane is no small factor in what his game may look like after he’s recovered.
Pagnotta believes there should be clarity on Kane’s health status and a more specific potential return date in “four to five weeks,” which could also be a target date for Kane signing rumors heating up in earnest.
Out of all the suitors Pagnotta mentioned, Colorado has made sense for Kane since the offseason began and still does today. Colorado projects to have four new faces in their middle six next season (Ross Colton, Jonathan Drouin, Ryan Johansen and Miles Wood), but their scoring depth remains rather thin.
Few would argue Kane is anywhere close to his prime at this stage in his career, especially coming off hip surgery, but he could still allow the team to reliably let Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen drive the top two lines separately.
Playing alongside MacKinnon could also very well jumpstart Kane’s production to the point where he’s providing rather immense value on what’s sure to be an already affordable contract.
As things stand, Colorado also has the most favorable salary cap situation out of the three major contenders Pagnotta mentioned. They’re projected to have $2.025M in cap space with captain Gabriel Landeskog on long-term injured reserve, per CapFriendly. Meanwhile, the Stars and Islanders are both between $300K and $500K over the $83.5M Upper Limit and will need to run a 22-player roster to be compliant, at least to start the season, assuming no further moves are made.
It’s hard to imagine a fit for Kane in Dallas, too. Their top nine is truly stacked, boasting one of the best lines in hockey followed by a combination of players like Jamie Benn, Matt Duchene, Wyatt Johnston and Tyler Seguin occupying lines two and three. While Kane may be a true upgrade on someone like Evgenii Dadonov, Dallas signed Dadonov to a two-year, $2.25M AAV extension this offseason. That’s not money usually given to a player slated for a fourth-line role, especially for someone who relies on point production to maintain efficacy.
The Islanders would make much more sense from a roster construction standpoint if they can make the money work. Wingers like Pierre Engvall and Kyle Palmieri are fine middle-six wingers, but they’re not ideal second-line flanks for a team still boasting championship aspirations with Mathew Barzal, Bo Horvat and Ilya Sorokin locked in for the long haul to rather hefty deals.
Regarding Boston, Kane may not be the top-six center they so desperately need, but he’d be a gigantic boon to a middle-six wing group that now looks awfully thin outside of Jake DeBrusk. Boston signed another veteran, James van Riemsdyk, to hopefully add a solid net-front punch, but after posting just 29 points in 61 games last season, expectations shouldn’t be high for the 34-year-old to be a high-end point-producing factor on the second or third line.
What may complicate fitting a contract for Kane under the cap is his lack of eligibility for performance bonuses. He’s still a year away from being eligible for a 35+ contract containing performance bonuses, and he didn’t miss significant time in-season with the hip injury.
It removes the option for a team to give Kane a lower cap hit and compensate him more in performance bonuses, allowing them to deal with the after-effects in 2024-25 if they can’t fit the bonuses under their year-end cap hit.
More must-reads: