Patrick Kane turned down multi-year offers from other NHL teams!
In order to sign with the Red Wings.
HockeyFeed
It’s the end of the Patrick Kane sweepstakes as the superstar free agent forward picked the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday, signing a contract for one season and worth $2.75 million.
Kane underwent hip resurfacing surgery on June 1 and had remained one of the most coveted free agents on the market since last summer. Several teams had been linked to Kane for the past months, including the Toronto Maple Leafs, Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes amongst others. After he chose the Red Wings, it was quickly revealed what other suitors were willing to offer in order to get Kane on their roster. Pierre LeBrun revealed on last night’s edition of Insider Trading on TSN which teams missed out on Kane as he decided to go short-term with a team he felt could contend now and then “reevaluate” options in summer.
“[Y]es the Leafs spoke to Kane and his camp but were not one of the three or four teams on his short list. It’s not surprising, [Brad] Treliving said himself earlier this week that he is trying to upgrade the blueline and that’s their priority.
"The Florida Panthers were a team that certainly tried hard. They met with him in Chicago but I don’t know that they feel that they were runners-up either. They made their pitch to play with Aleksander Barkov in sunny Florida and it wasn’t good enough.
"The Buffalo Sabres also had a meeting with Kane and felt they made a good effort to land their hometown player, but they did not.”
LeBrun’s colleague Chris Johnston also pointed out why Kane chose Detroit as his landing spot.
“When it comes to Detroit, what stood out was [head coach] Derek Lalonde had a strong impact on Kane during their discussions. We’ve talked [also] about the connection with Alex DeBrincat and the strong start to the season the Red Wings had.
“The Red Wings also had the most cap space of any of the teams that were involved right up until the end.
“There’s no timeline when Kane will play but it sounds like sometime next week we expect him to make his debut in Detroit.”
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.
There is a sense that Kane sees the Red Wings as a contender as Detroit sits third in the Atlantic Division and could snap their seven-year playoff drought.
With Kane on board, it surely sounds possible.
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