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Say it with me people: Patrick Kane is a Detroit Red Wing.
After months of hypothesis about the place Kane would signal, with some connecting him to the Florida Panthers, Dallas Stars and the Buffalo Sabres amongst others, the highly-decorated winger signed a one-year, $2.75 million take care of the Red Wings.
The transfer reunites Kane with Alex DeBrincat, his linemate with the Chicago Blackhawks from 2017-2022. Kane loved a career-best season playing with DeBrincat in the course of the 2018-19 season, and DeBrincat adopted that up with a career-best season in 2021-22, his remaining 12 months taking part in with Kane and the Blackhawks.
Through 16 seasons, Kane is a three-time Stanley Cup champion with the third-most factors (1,237) ever amongst Americans to play within the NHL. He was the highest choose of the 2007 NHL Draft, the common season MVP in 2016 in addition to the NHL’s prime point-getter that very same season. He gained the Calder Trophy because the league’s prime rookie in 2008, and he gained the Conn Smythe because the playoff MVP in the course of the Blackhawks’ run to a championship in 2013. He is taken into account among the best gamers of all time, and his quantity might be retired by the Blackhawks when he decides to name it a profession.
That’s only a snapshot of what Kane brings to the Red Wings. To get the total image, we have to look somewhat bit nearer….
Kane Adds Star Power to Red Wings’ Top 6
The DeBrincat connection looms giant because the Red Wings and head coach Derek Lalonde start the duty of determining the place Kane will match into Detroit’s lineup. According to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, the Red Wings’ current lineup change to breakup to prime line of DeBrincat, Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond was, partly, a maneuver to enchantment to Kane.
Given the success that DeBrincat and Kane loved collectively, it looks like a on condition that the 2 might be reunited as soon as Kane formally joins the lineup. Since the lineup shakeup, DeBrincat has performed on the Red Wings’ second line with heart J.T. Compher and winger Michael Rasmussen. Assuming nothing occurs to alter the personnel on the group’s first line, it looks like sliding Kane into Rasmussen’s spot can be a fairly simple adjustment to make.
The Red Wings will possible need to ease Kane into the lineup for numerous causes, one among which is that the group had been doing fairly properly earlier than they signed Kane. They presently sit third within the Atlantic Division and maintain the third-best goal-differential within the Eastern Conference (plus-14). Adding Kane is a luxurious that different groups couldn’t afford because of the wage cap, so the Red Wings ought to be capable of take their time with Kane and guarantee that he’s utterly able to go earlier than he wears the winged wheel for the primary time.
Related: Red Wings: the Pros & Cons of Signing Patrick Kane
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When Kane does enter the lineup, his presence alone will change how the hockey neighborhood talks about this group. Considering how lengthy the Red Wings’ rebuild has been happening, that change of tone might be music to the ears of followers all throughout “Hockeytown”.
Does the Kane Signing Mean the Red Wings’ Rebuild Is Over?
Entering this season, Red Wings basic supervisor Steve Yzerman nonetheless used the phrase “building” to explain the standing of his group. He talked about that the group was nonetheless making an attempt to determine its core, even after spending tens of millions of {dollars} within the offseason to herald a bunch of veteran free brokers. Fast ahead to immediately, and the Red Wings seem like a group that may very well be a real menace for a wild card spot because the playoff race begins to warmth up within the new 12 months.
Even earlier than they signed Kane, there was an argument to be made that the Red Wings have moved into the subsequent part of their aggressive cycle. With a prospect pool that’s virtually overflowing and a roster that’s as deep as it has ever been since Detroit’s playoff streak resulted in 2017, the Red Wings appear arrange for fulfillment each within the brief and long-term. Now that they’ve signed Kane, it is honest to marvel if we’ve been underselling the place this group is at up till this level.
Though there have been possible different groups that Kane, few, if any, had been capable of match the value tag the Red Wings had been capable of provide him. But for a ahead whose profession earnings are over $115 million on contracts alone, cash was most likely secondary to his match with the group and the group’s plan to compete for a Stanley Cup. After all, at 35 years outdated, who is aware of what number of years Kane has left so as to add a fourth championship ring to his assortment.
If nothing else, this signing is a glowing endorsement of the Red Wings, each the place they’re at now and the place Yzerman has them headed. While this transfer doesn’t imply the Red Wings are all of a sudden Cup contenders, it does imply we most likely want to think about them less as “playoff hopefuls” and extra as “playoff contenders.”
Low Risk, High Reward
When it involves one-year offers, most danger attributed with the participant signed is mitigated by the dearth of time period on the contract. While Kane has nearly as good a résumé as you will discover within the NHL, there are nonetheless some dangers that stop this signing from being a slam dunk when it comes to its success.
First and foremost, Kane and his teammates had been on the heart of one of many greatest scandals in NHL historical past when it was revealed a participant by the identify of Kyle Beach was sexually assaulted by one of many Blackhawks’ video coaches in the course of the group’s championship run in 2010. According to those who had been a part of that group, many of the group’s gamers knew about what was happening, however nobody stood up for his or her teammate when it mattered essentially the most.
That scandal has since been settled between Beach and the Blackhawks, however many gamers from these Blackhawk dynasty years, together with Kane, now have a tainted legacy regardless of all that they’ve achieved. Despite this, Yzerman and his administration workers clearly harbor little-to-no issues about Kane’s character and the way it would possibly impression the Red Wings’ locker room.
The different concern surrounding Kane is his capacity to bounce again from the hip resurfacing surgical procedure that saved him off of an NHL roster so far within the season. To this level, there is no such thing as a precedent of a participant getting back from that sort of surgical procedure and returning to the extent of success that they had previous to the damage. The most up-to-date instance was Nicklas Bäckström of the Washington Capitals, who returned midway by means of the 2022-23 season, and featured in eight video games this season earlier than he was compelled to step away indefinitely. In 47 video games, he had 22 factors, a far cry from the lofty totals he was used to placing up as the principle setup man for Alex Ovechkin.
Perhaps Kane might be the exception. Though he has by no means been essentially the most cellular ahead on the ice all through his profession, that lack of mobility has by no means prevented him from creating area within the offensive zone, and that’s what lead him to develop into among the best playmakers of his technology. The Red Wings will clearly need to shield him as a lot as they’ll, but when they’ll restrict his play within the defensive finish and his must backcheck within the impartial zone, they need to be capable of set themselves and Kane up for fulfillment. In different phrases, don’t anticipate him to common over 22 minutes of ice time like he did when he and DeBrincat had been lighting it up with the Blackhawks.
It’s Showtime in Detroit
Kane, who earned the nickname “Showtime” throughout his time in Chicago, is the most recent instance of the Red Wings turning into a most popular vacation spot free of charge brokers. It wasn’t that way back that the group’s greatest free agent signings had been Valtteri Filppula and Patrik Nemeth whereas different groups had been capable of signal authentic needle-movers. Now not solely are the Red Wings attracting free brokers, however gamers with identify model worth are beginning to look their means once more too.
At the beginning of this season, the concept of creating the playoffs was thrown round like an costly merchandise on a Christmas want listing: you positively point out it since you do need it, however you don’t maintain your breath and simply hope to be pleasantly stunned when Santa comes round. Signing Kane isn’t precisely a one-way journey to the playoffs, however it ought to change the notion of the place this group is at and make the concept of creating the playoffs much less of a want and extra of an expectation.
Regardless of how this signing really performs out, one factor has been made completely clear at this level of the season: the Red Wings are again.
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