Evander Kane is currently a free agent.
The question now is whether a different team is going to give him another chance.
On Monday’s episode of The Daily Faceoff Show, Frank Seravalli and Ryan S. Clark discussed the Kane situation and whether or not he’ll sign a contract with an NHL club this season.
Seravalli: “In case you missed the news, the San Jose Sharks officially terminated Evander Kane’s contract on Sunday after he cleared unconditional waivers. Soon after that, the NHLPA filed a grievance on his behalf. The process will now go before an arbitrator and it’s certainly not something that’s going to be resolved in short order.
Kane, meanwhile, is officially an unrestricted free agent. His agent Dan Milstein said to multiple outlets on Monday that there has been lots of interest in Evander Kane. My side-eye to that is, well, what exactly is his agent supposed to say? There’s no one calling?
So we’re at this unique and interesting point, and Ryan, my question to you is, do you think Evander Kane will be under contract with an NHL team prior to the March 21 deadline, given what we know about his situation?”
Clark: “It’s difficult to say. It seems like every month there’s something that’s come up that relates to Evander Kane. But the reason this conversation is happening is because you look at what he provides, you’re talking about someone who’s had six consecutive 20-goal seasons.
Let’s think back to when he joined the Sharks. He had nine goals and 14 points in 17 games, which shows that he can have an instant impact. But then when you look at the playoff figures he’s had in his career, six goals and 13 points over 29 games.
When you look at the different wild-card races that are going on, or even if you’re a team that isn’t in the wild-card race, you’re a little bit higher in the standings, you think about a player like that, 6-foot-2, 210 pounds who can do a lot of different things and you’re going to get him at a cheap price. But, again, because of everything else that’s happened this year you have to ask yourself if that’s a risk worth taking.”
Seravalli: “That’s the question that all of these NHL general managers are going to be asking themselves. Given the way that the San Jose Sharks reacted this year and the comments that they made spoke volumes to me.
On a personal level, lots of facts still need to be established in this case and there have been lots of allegations that have been made towards Evander Kane, my two cents is that if Evander Kane is given another chance this quickly, before March, that it might end up being the worst thing for him.”
You can watch the full episode here…
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