With the NHL season less than a month away, every hockey fan begins to get more and more antsy as that ever-important opening faceoff inches closer.
Questions always seem to arise in the weeks leading up to your favourite team’s opening game. Can my team build off the success they had last year? Which team will be this season’s surprise team making a push to the playoffs? Who are the true Stanley Cup contenders and who are the pretenders?
But the biggest question on everyone’s mind heading into training camp this season has to be; what will the Chicago Blackhawks do with their troubled superstar Patrick Kane?
Earlier this summer, reports surfaced that Patrick Kane was being investigated for sexual assault. Following this, rumours started that the Blackhawks were mulling over trading the superstar and moving on from the issue.
Kane, as well as Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews, will be entering their first season of a brand-new eight-year contract, where they each will average $10.5 million per season.
Last season was viewed somewhat as a last hurrah for the Blackhawks and the team’s last chance for another Stanley Cup Championship, which the Hawks did win. But key contributors of the Blackhawks over the past seven seasons were traded away in order to free up cap space to pay Toews and Kane more than a quarter of the team’s total salary.
Guys like Patrick Sharp, Kris Versteeg and Brandon Saad were dealt to the Dallas Stars, Carolina Hurricanes and Columbus Blue Jackets respectively. Players like Brad Richards, Antoine Vermette and Johnny Oduya were not offered new contracts by Chicago and signed with new teams.
Chicago made a lot of moves in order to make Kane’s contract work for the Hawks and now the team is considering moving him. Reports stated roughly five teams were making offers on Kane. I would imagine any team would be looking to add a talent like Kane, but not a troubled player like the 26-year-old.
If it were me running the league, I wouldn’t even allow him the opportunity to play in the NHL this season until the sexual assault issue is resolved. The league should suspend Kane indefinitely and should he be able to play after issues are resolved, then Chicago can decide what they want to do with him, either trade him or reunite him back with the team.
All I know is the league needs to avoid being involved in issues like this and penalize players where it is necessary. Sure the league may lose a top-level talent, but this isn’t the National Football League — being a superstar shouldn’t make Kane exempt from being penalized.
