11/29/23: The Red Wings have now made their signing of Kane official.
11/28/23: According to The Athletic’s Chris Johnston, free agent forward and future Hall of Famer Patrick Kane is signing with the Detroit Red Wings.
Should this report end up accurate, Kane would be landing with a historic rival of his longtime club, the Chicago Blackhawks.
According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Kane’s deal is a one-year, $2.75MM pact.
It would also mean Kane will have played for half of the league’s original six teams, after spending part of last season with the New York Rangers.
According to ESPN’s Emily Kaplan, Kane “was very impressed” with Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde, and more specifically his “hockey acumen” and “vision for Detroit.”
By signing in Detroit, Kane has re-united himself with one of his favorite former teammates: Alex DeBrincat. DeBrincat, who the Red Wings acquired in the offseason, has had the best seasons of his career on a line with Kane and is currently off to a hot start with 12 goals and 20 points in 20 games.
While DeBrincat has slowed down a bit recently, the arrival of Kane will likely give him a major boost, assuming Kane comes back and plays up to his career standard. That’s far from a guarantee after offseason hip surgery, especially if one considers the impact hip resurfacing surgery had on Nicklas Backstrom.
At the moment, the Red Wings have almost $7MM in cap space to work with according to CapFriendly. As a result, they should be able to comfortably fit the cost of Kane’s contract, assuming the cap hit isn’t excessively expensive.
As for where Kane fits in Detroit’s lineup, one has to assume Lalonde would begin by placing Kane with DeBrincat on the team’s second line, a unit currently centered by J.T. Compher. Doing so would displace Michael Rasmussen, but the 2017 ninth-overall pick’s six points in 20 games is hardly a convincing argument to retain his top-six job over a player like Kane.
Of course, Lalonde could also choose to not immediately go with the DeBrincat/Kane partnership, and instead play Kane on the first line with Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond, replacing Joe Veleno.
In any case, the Red Wings could be getting a significant offensive boost with this signing. Assuming Kane can return to something close to what he was in Chicago and at times on Broadway, Detroit is getting the type of mid-season reinforcement that usually costs teams quality prospects and/or draft picks.
Although Kane’s play in the defensive end has led to questions regarding how much overall value he actually provides, there’s a reason most contending teams would eagerly accept adding Kane to their top-six. He’s one of the defining offensive talents of this most recent era of NHL hockey, and is nearly point-per-game in the postseason across a sample size of nearly 150 games.
The Red Wings are eager to emerge out of their rebuild and return to the playoffs, perhaps making a serious run at the Stanley Cup as well. Adding Kane almost undoubtedly helps them in that pursuit.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Hell yeah!!!
Unless last season was a precursor to his future production. Time will tell……..
Well … consider. 18 points in 26 games (counting playoffs) is far from poor production. There’s a lot of guys in the league making $2.75 MM chipping in a good bit less than that. If that’s the deal, and Kane can manage what he did last year, Detroit’s done well for themselves.
You do realize the 2nd from last season with Kane in Chicago the HC at the time played him about 25min/game.
Red Wings always get the goods from ex- Blackhawks. Lets go Baby!
I’m trying to rack my brain on the goods the Red Wings received in the past from the Blackhawks. Please enlighten me…
Chris chelios
“Anyone but Detroit”… -Chris Chelios 1998
that alone is worth remembering for generations
Earl Seibert and Fido Purpur.
You’re naming guys from the 40s?
That’s like leafs fans talking about their cups
Like Jack Armstrong says
Get that garbage outta here lol
And to a lot of hockey fans of today, Chris Chelios is “some guy” who used to play.
Kane “was very impressed” with Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde, and more specifically his “hockey acumen” and “vision for Detroit.”
So which Red Wings front-office PR guy wrote this & forwarded it to Kane’s agent with a note that read: “Make sure he talks up Lalonde! Here, say this!”
“And don’t mention that we offered you the most money”.
Kinda like how the Hawks offered Foligno and Perry the most money to circumvent the cap floor…
It’s almost like players are allowed to have opinions about the executives in the sports they play
I don’t think this guy will make much of a difference anymore. He’s going to have to defy the odds with that hip injury.
Low risk, high reward signing
I suppose, but he could ruin chemistry. If he sucks now they will still feel forced to play him on a top line because of who he is.
If he sucks it’s likely because he isn’t fully recovered and will end up on LTIR. This is as low risk of a signing as you can get.
We’ll see
Or he could be a beneficial veteran addition with playoff experience that can help guide and calm all the young kids that haven’t been in the playoffs before (assuming/projecting we make it to the playoffs this year).
He helped so much in New York, haha
Yep, this is New York and we have the same roster and makeup as the Rangers had/have. Excellent apples to apples comparison!
Did not see this one coming.
Surprised Stevie Y is doing this, Kane is 35 and the hip resurfacing surgery seems to end hockey careers. Just ask Kesler and Backstrom. Guess if it’s a low risk league minimum type “show me” contract with $ tied into performance bonus, fine. Gotta hope this signing does not end up being a huge distraction, messing up team chemistry.
Kane isn’t eligible for performance bonuses. One year at $2.75 MM isn’t much of a risk, especially with Detroit carrying more cap space than most.
Huge risk! But time will tell if it was as dumb a move as Yzerman trading Filip Hronek.
Hronek is having a great season because of the players he’s playing with. J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser, Elias Peterson, Quinn Hughes, Andrei Kuzmenko.. they are all great offensive players. Detroit didn’t have that kind of talent over the years. Plus the contract he wanted it would’ve held the team back a little bit. If it were pre salary cap days no question they would’ve kept him. Trading him for a first and second round pick is a great haul for him. I liked Hronek too but there’s potentially better prospects on the way who are better than him.
Yzerman simply screwed up!
Hronek looks great, but Yzerman has Seider, Edvinsson and now Sandin-Pelikka. If there’s a team who doesn’t need an offensive D-man Detroit is that team. They will be just fine.
Not really a dumb move, Kane if he is healthy can probably get the most out of players and if Red Wings are in or fighting for a playoff berth then I really think others players might want to go to Detroit so they can play with Kane again or for the first time…But the word healthy really cones into play..
Huge IF, Hip resurfacing surgery ends most pro athletes careers.
When you say IF Kane is healthy you make our point for us, This is another Yzerman move that won’t end well.
I don’t get this at all. He’s not enough of a difference maker at this point to go to a non-contender.
Good risk/reward for Detroit but don’t see it from Kane’s POV.
Oh, that’s simple. Look at the list of clubs purportedly interested in Kane.
Now look at how much cap space those clubs have available.
It just may well be that Detroit actually offered him the best deal that was on the table.
Maybe in a few weeks Kane can keep Fabbri company on IR.
The Red Wings have chosen…..poorly
Seems like a weird stylistic fit, but money.. ya know.
According to DFO it’s a done deal
Good luck to Kaner in Detroit