Earlier this week, coveted free agent Patrick Kane chose to sign a one-year contract with the Detroit Red Wings and is likely to make his season debut on Tuesday in his hometown of Buffalo against the Sabres.
When Kane was considering where he could sign, as teams like the Sabres, Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida President were also in the mix, he also thought his former team, the Chicago Blackhawks, could be an option.
That’s what the new member of the Red Wings revealed to Scott Powers of the Athletic, saying that after he was traded to the New York Rangers at the deadline, he imagined he and former captain Jonathan Toews would simplybe brought back after the Blackhawks acquired the first overall pick.
“Yeah, I mean, I never really knew, right?” Kane said. “Especially after that first pick, I was like, ‘OK, maybe they’ll try to bring, even like Tazer or myself back.’
“I know when I was a young guy, it really helped having some older guys around like Robert Lang, (Martin) Havlat, Yanick Perrault and Patrick Lalime, guys like that. Obviously, we had some young guys coming up that were pretty special players, and that made it pretty easy on me, too. It seemed like they wanted to go in a direction where they were going to bring in some different type of veterans.
He finally comes to terms, adding: “Yeah, it’s what it is. Good for them. You don’t think about it too much.”
Kane is still reuniting with another former Hawks forward with whom he had success in Alex DeBrincat, who after playing for the Ottawa Senators last year was traded to the Red Wings during the offseason. Kane and DeBrincat were unbelievable together with the Hawks from 2017-18 to 2021-22. DeBrincat scored 41 goals twice and tallied 32 goals in the 56-game season, which would have put him on pace for 46 over 82 games.
But can you imagine the buzz if Kane and a healthy Toews had joined Connor Bedard in Chicago this season?!
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