Blackhawks place Patrick Kane on IR as he contemplates future
Anthony Scultore
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The Chicago Blackhawks have placed Patrick Kane on injured reserved retroactive to January 3 with a lower-body injury. He will miss tonight’s game versus the Colorado Avalanche but is expected to return on Saturday against the Seattle Kraken.
On New Year’s Day, Kane was hurt by a hit from San Jose Sharks forward Evgeny Svechnikov. He tried to play through it in the team’s next game, a 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, but admitted that it was a bad decision.
This will be the third straight game he misses.
Patrick Kane on IR
Kane, 34, has 27 points in 37 games this season and is one of the top targets for contenders at the March 3rd Trade Deadline.
Recent reporting noted that he and Jonathan Toews will be meeting with the organization this month to discuss their futures. Kane will be a UFA this summer and has a full no-move clause to control where he lands. The Blackhawks will also need to retain 50% of his $10.5M cap hit in order to maximize a return and facilitate a deal with cap strapped teams.
Kane sat down with NBC Sports Charlie Roumeliotis for an interview and addressed the trade deadline.
“It’s a different year obviously, going into the last year of your contract and different variables about what’s going to happen or where you’re going to be the rest of your career, different things like that,” Kane said. “You think about that stuff, especially when it gets into January here and got a couple months to the trade deadline. We’ll see how it all shakes out.”
NBC Sports
The future first-ballot hall of famer has spent 15 season in Chicago winning three Stanley Cups. He and teammate Jonathan Toews are both expected to be available on March 3, the NHL trade deadline.
“I think both of us will probably want to hear what the other one is doing,” Kane told Roumeliotis. “But I don’t think it will be like a determining factor or what one or the other does.”
Editor’s note: Article updated to reflect Colorado Avalanche as Thursday’s opponent.
