Should The Golden Knights Trade For Patrick Kane?
Mark Stone has been ruled out indefinitely thanks to another gruesome back injury. There is no timetable on Stone’s return. However, the hope has to be that they can sit Stone on LTIR and return at some point during the postseason. If that’s the case, Vegas has $9.5 million in new cap space to add for a potential Cup run. Does that mean Patrick Kane could be on the way?
On Thursday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live Frank Seravalli talked about how he expects Vegas to target Patrick Kane on the trade market following the Stone injury:
“The Golden Knights said he is going to be out indefinitely and that they expect him to make a full recovery but kind of played coy about that. When is that full recovery, is it before the regular season’s done, is it sometime during the playoffs, or is it next season? Either way, I think the Golden Knights have a prime opportunity to keep Mark Stone and his back injury at least out until the playoffs if they want to. That would open up $9.25 million for the team that likes to go after it like no other in the NHL. They are hungry to win, and the guy for me, also a right winger with lots of glitz and glamor, is Patrick Kane.”
“I would think so but here’s the thing, he’s probably not a re-signing candidate. Unless Stone is out for way longer, and we don’t believe that that’s the case, I don’t know how you’d be able to fit him in. Here’s where it gets really interesting for Vegas, you take Kane’s $10.5 million salary and chop it in half with Chicago retaining salary, and you’d still have some chance to go out and add a defenseman. We’d talked about that as their top deadline objective before this Stone injury.”
The Daily Faceoff guys are excellent but I want to dig further here. The fact of the matter is Kane hasn’t been good this year. Kane, 34, has always been bad defensively but this is a new low. The Buffalo native is a -26 with 34 points in 45 games. Yes, Chicago is terrible but all of the underlying numbers this year have been brutal.
It’s one thing to be horrific defensively. Nobody cares when you’re Kucherov slamming pucks in the back of the net. Kane’s having a down year and some of this is on him. Sure, Kane can help. I have no doubts there but what exactly are you giving up?
Keep this in mind too (don’t click, just providing the source. It’s an Athletic piece). Kane is not healthy at all which has to be part of why the numbers are so bad here. Kane likely needs hip surgery and he’s currently gutting it out to play through it. It’s expected to hamper his trade market and or could take himself off trade talks by getting the surgery early. For Vegas, how can you justify giving up another asset for another potential injury problem?
Frankly, there’s one solution here and it should be the only one Vegas should consider. Kane holds all the cards. No trade clause and everything. He basically is going to choose his landing spot. If it’s the Knights, it has to come with a cheap upcoming extension. Brad Marchand just talked about why the Bruins are so good. When Patrice Bergeron makes pennies, you have a hell of a shot to win. Otherwise, what’s the point in this for Vegas? To hope and pray Kane makes it through the season only to watch him hit the open market in a few months?
If Kane wants to win he should prove it by doing what Bergeron is doing. The lack of production, new injury risk, and no trade clause have to play a factor in a potential trade. If Kane wants to come to Vegas, make him prove it. If not, the VGK should pass and pursue other options.
