Patrick Kane will decide on future closer to trade deadline
The Daily Goal Horn
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Teams around the NHL are interested in longtime Chicago Blackhawks goal-scorer Patrick Kane, but the 34-year-old right winger is still in the process of deciding whether to waive his no-movement clause and welcome a trade away from his longtime NHL home.
Speaking to reporters Monday, Kane said teams have reached out to his agent to gauge Kane’s interest in being traded out of cellar-dwelling Chicago and to a contender.
The NHL trade deadline is March 3.
“We talked about it in the summer with Pat (Brisson, his agent),” Kane said. “We’ll just probably be taking it up to the deadline and making a decision. I mean, he’s told me a few that have reached out to him. So yeah, we’ll probably talk about that possibly too, if that’s an option of getting traded and obviously figure out a team that could be the best fit. But we’re not really at that point either.”
NHL.com
Patrick Kane on NHL Trade Deadline
Kane, who is in his 16th season with Chicago, was asked which team might be the best fit for him.
“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s tough to decide if we’re getting to that point yet, so I think there are definitely opportunities out there that are intriguing and could be exciting. We’ll see.”
Kane’s contract is up after the current season and it’s speculated that Chicago will try to flip him for younger assets. The Blackhawks are tied with the Columbus Blue Jackets for the fewest points in the NHL (34) and are in the midst of a tear-it-down rebuild that saw them part with forwards Alex DeBrincat, Dylan Strome, Dominik Kubalik and Kirby Dach last offseason.
Multiple reports said that the New York Rangers and Dallas Stars are among the teams that have inquired about Kane.
The future hall-of-famer is also dealing with an injury that should have many teams concerned.
“I was talking to guys that have played against him recently,” Elliotte Friedman revealed on his latest podcast. “They can see he’s really gutting it out and he’s not 100 percent. What this one player said to me is that you can tell he’s not Patrick Kane, but he really praised him for the effort.”
Kane was the first overall draft pick in 2007 and became the first American-born player to win the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s scoring leader. In 1,152 career games, Kane has racked up 1,214 points (439 goals, 775 assists).
He won both the Hart Trophy as the league MVP and the Art Ross in 2015-16, when he tallied 46 goals and 60 assists. In 45 games this season, Kane has nine goals and 25 assists.
–Field Level Media
–The Daily Goal Horn contributed to this article