It’s not Boston, Toronto, Dallas or a return home to play for the Buffalo Sabres.
Patrick Kane is taking his talents to Detroit, where he’ll join the 11-6-3 Red Wings, who sit third in the Atlantic Division, tied at 25 points with the Florida Panthers through 20 games.
Though the signing hasn’t officially been announced by the team, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported it to be a one-year deal worth $2.75 million after there were rumours that Kane may sign for a couple seasons. According to CapFriendly, the Wings had more than $4 million in cap space this season before the signing was announced.
Though the Wings haven’t qualified for the post-season since 2016 and missed out by 12 points last season, they hung in the 2023 race until losing 11 of their final 16 games to fade away.
This season, the Wings have early momentum. Detroit’s plus-14 goal differential is the second-best mark in the Eastern Conference, its power play is top 10 and it’s the only team that travelled to Sweden in November that returned to success: the Red Wings have won three in a row after falling twice overseas.
Is it sustainable? At five-on-five, Detroit is 28th in expected goals per 60 minutes, and second in actual goals, aided by a league-high 11.27 shooting percentage. The Wings are second to Vancouver in PDO (save percentage plus shooting percentage) and we’ve seen some regression from the Canucks the past two weeks.
But the Atlantic Division, and the Eastern Conference, is ripe for turnover and the Red Wings are positioning themselves to pounce. Kane, coming back from hip-resurfacing surgery, will join up again with former linemate Alex DeBrincat after the two had plenty of success together in Chicago.
The question will be, how much does Kane, at 35, have left in the tank and how quickly can he get up to game speed?
Last season, Kane scored 16 goals and 45 points in 54 games for Chicago, then added 12 points in 19 regular-season games after being traded to the New York Rangers, and another six points in seven playoff games.
Detroit’s next two games are, fittingly, against the two teams Kane has played for, in New York Wednesday, at home to Chicago on Thursday. If he doesn’t play in either of those, next up for Detroit is a road game in Montreal for Hockey Night in Canada on Satuday.
For a look at what Kane will bring to the Red Wings, we turn to our scout Jason Bukala.
SCOUT’S ANALYSIS
Kane to the Detroit Red Wings makes sense.
The most obvious reason Kane and the Wings see a fit for each other is the fact Kane and DeBrincat will likely be reunited as linemates.
In their last full season together, 2021-22, they resembled a two-man band in Chicago and there were nights where they just played keepaway.
Here’s an example of the synergy Kane and DeBrincat have playing together:
Kane finished the season with 26 goals and 66 assists, DeBrincat with 41 goals and 37 assists.
The dynamic duo rolled over the boards together at even-strength, the first power-play unit, four-on-four, and in three-on-three overtime periods.
Last season, despite his hip issue, Kane was still productive and he battled through his injury to produce 57 points in 73 games. There were nights his agility and explosiveness were understandably off due to his hip issue. But there were also nights he contributed like this:
It’s going to be interesting who the Wings decide to put at centre between Kane and DeBrincat.
The obvious choice is to load up a potentially lethal scoring line with Dylan Larkin in the middle.
Another option would be to simply swap out Michael Rasmussen for Kane and keep JT Compher in the middle.
Either way, the Wings should be an even more dangerous team offensively with Kane around.
Look for the Wings’ power play to go to another level with Kane in the mix. Detroit has the ninth-ranked unit in the league (22.4 per cent). The Wings have an opportunity to roll out a group that includes DeBrincat, Larkin, Kane, Shayne Gostisbehere and David Perron.
It’s not easy to jump into the fray a quarter of the way through the season, especially coming off a significant hip-resurfacing surgery, but Kane has clearly worked hard rehabbing his injury. It will be interesting to see how long it takes him to get back up to NHL game speed.
