Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek on the 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – All Eyes are Sweden episode on the Evander Kane.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Marek: “Patrick Kane decision time coming.”
Friedman: “I think there’s eight meetings or Zoom meetings set up week. I think he’s got a couple more. It sounds like the number is approximately eight. And I think this is not so much about contract as it is about feel.
You know, getting talking to the teams, the coaches, the GMs. Where do you envision Kane playing? You know, how do you see him fitting in the roster, power play? I think all of those things.
aNHL Rumors: Teams calling the Calgary Flames, and Mikael Backlund wants to quiet the noise
You know, I think Kane, one of the things he has to do is make a decision. I’ve heard at times he’s talked about a one-year deal. Playing somewhere this year seeing how it goes. I’ve also heard talk about that maybe he might be less interested in that because he doesn’t want to move his family around as much and he might be looking for a couple of years.
He’s not eligible to sign an over 35 deal because in the NHL, your age is determined by how old you are on July 1st. So he turns 35, actually, on Sunday. Happy Birthday Patrick. It doesn’t matter at this point.
Now, I know that the Toronto thing got kind of overturned. I’d heard rumors that he was going to talk to them but the Maple Leafs were kind of looking at it like, ‘hey, is that what we need or whatever flexibility we have, we might have to spend it elsewhere.’
So I’m still looking at teams like Detroit, Buffalo, Florida. I’ve wondered about Carolina. Like we talked, we talked on this in this podcast, Jeff about Carolina needing scoring, you know, Kane can score. And so I still don’t know where this is going to go yet. But I think that he’s got about eight teams. He’s talked to or talking to, and then we go to the next point where he starts to narrow it down or pick his group.”
Marek: “Does it feel to you like the Brad Richards courtship?”
Friedman: “Well, he’s not flying around everywhere.”
Marek: “Just hearing lining up all the teams and all the Zoom calls. This is the 2023 versions of Brad Richards courting around the NHL. It’s an intriguing one. You know, I would have to think that we’ve talked a lot about Dallas as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if, if they talk to Kane this week. We’ll see.
I don’t think it’s going to be Dallas. Like I think he would like to play there. You know, we talk in this podcast about Tanev and Zadorov, and, and everything. I think that Dallas is going to go out to try to find the best defenseman they can find. That’s my guess as to what they’re going to do. So I think Kane would love to play there. I just don’t know if the fit is going to be possible.”
Marek: Let me throw another team. Okay, the New York Islanders. Talk about looking for a goal scorer looking for more offense.”
Friedman: “Yeah, it’s not the worst idea. Again he fits with what they need, they need scoring. It’ll be interesting to me if he picks best opportunity to win this year or best opportunity over the next couple of years. You know to me, if he’s doing a couple of years, that increases Buffalo’s chances to me. Detroit I think is a really intriguing one too.
NHL Rumors: Phil Kessel and the Vancouver Canucks
There’s no like, again, I always thought it was going to be about this year. Now. I’m not sure it’s just gonna be about this year. I think Kane has to decide. And we’ve talked a lot about Florida. I don’t want to name half the league because it’s kind of weak move actually.
But the biggest challenge for me right now is figuring out if it’s a one-year deal or it’s a multi-year deal because that changes the equation.”