If it felt like Patrick Kane took the Vladimir Tarasenko trade to the New York Rangers extra personally, it's because Kane to New York was closer to happening than it appeared at the time.
"It's not, like, the happiest I've been to hear about a trade," Kane said, per Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Sports Chicago. "I think the Rangers are a team that you definitely pay attention to and definitely are intrigued by, for obvious reasons."
Well, one hat trick, seven goals, 10 points and a little bit of patience later, Kane is more than just intrigued by the Rangers. The 34-year-old future Hall of Famer is a Blueshirt after all.
New York is expected to acquire Kane for a 2023 conditional second-round pick (which can become a first) and a 2023 fourth-round pick. The Arizona Coyotes will take on a portion of Kane's cap hit and will receive a third-round pick in 2025 for helping to get the deal over the line.
Emily Kaplan @emilymkaplanAccording to sources, the Arizona Coyotes are the third party team facilitating the Blackhawks and Rangers Patrick Kane deal. <a href="https://t.co/kbvLSwG96i">https://t.co/kbvLSwG96i</a>
Elliotte Friedman @FriedgeHNICARIZ is getting a 3rd in 2025 (NYR) for brokering the Patrick Kane trade
New York had to make several transactions just to get the numbers to work to add Kane. On Saturday, the Rangers unloaded fringe winger Vitali Kravtsov (three goals and six points in 28 games with the NHL club this season) and his $875,000 salary-cap hit to the Vancouver Canucks for prospect Will Lockwood and a seventh-round pick in 2026. They waived fourth-liner Jake Leschyshyn and sent down defenseman Braden Schneider on Sunday to clear cap space.
Kane, who had been with Chicago for his entire 16-season NHL career, waived his no-trade clause to join New York in a sort of bittersweet move as the star seeks one more Stanley Cup.
There were two big concerns of suitors when it came to Kane's potential role on a Cup contender: the acquisition cost and his hip injury. Clearly, Kane wanted to make it work with the Rangers, as they were the only team he was interested in. That gave them tons of leverage, and they didn't have to surrender another first-round pick. Doing that and shipping out players who struggled to stay in their stacked lineup was a big win.
As for the hip injury, Kane is starting to silence doubts and has said the situation is "overblown."
Kane was having a bad season—on pace for a career-worst year in points until recently. He did not look like the tough-to-play-against forward we've been spoiled with watching for almost two decades. But a week after it was reported that the Rangers opted for Tarasenko because of concern over Kane's hip, he exploded on the ice, including the hat trick and 10 points in his last four games.
It's a small sample size with recency bias, but Kane's ability to turn it on like that and play at an elite level has been what's separated him during his career, and it makes sense that a young team would want his experience and mentality in its locker room for the playoffs.
Meanwhile, Chicago is tanking, and Kane hasn't necessarily had the supporting cast or sense of urgency to unleash the three-time Stanley Cup winner within. His lackluster performance this season is not a true representation of what he can do on a good team with actual hopes and dreams. What he can do isn't worth $10.5 million either, but now that we know the Rangers are not paying everything under the sun, that's a non-issue.
In acquiring Kane, New York solidified one of the most eventful trade deadline outings in recent memory. It now boasts Kane, Tarasenko, Tyler Motte and Niko Mikkola. What could that look like?
The Rangers have been deploying Tarasenko in different spots since acquiring him Feb. 9. They started the right winger out on Mika Zibanejad's line, to the right of countryman Artemi Panarin. They've since swapped Chris Kreider for Panarin on that line, and most recently have played Panarin, Tarasenko and Vincent Trocheck together. Jimmy Vesey is the other right winger bouncing around in this equation, but with the acquisition of Kane, he will get bumped down to the bottom six.
I bet the Rangers will continue to play around, and we might see combinations such as Kreider-Zibanejad-Kane, Panarin-Trocheck-Kane and Kreider-Trocheck-Kane.
To spell it out, we are looking at Panarin-Trocheck-Tarasenko and Kreider-Zibanejad-Kane. That is a star-studded top six, no matter how you splice it.
Personally, I've enjoyed watching the chemistry between Panarin and Tarasenko, and I'm sure they've enjoyed playing together. But when I think about what could make the Kane trade a gigantic success, it's the versatility now available to Gerard Gallant when a line goes cold during the playoffs.
The concern about Kane's hip remains, and the Rangers will have to be smart about deployment and maybe not rely too heavily on Kane to be the guy. But the beauty of this deal, and their huge trade deadline, is they don't have to. They can slot in Kane on the first or second line and let him snipe on the power play alongside a bolstered supporting cast.
While teams such as the Boston Bruins have made tweaks and there's an understated value in not doing too much, the Rangers became a superteam in front of our eyes. It feels like their bold moves and cap maneuvering could set a precedent, as more teams will be able to go for it when the cap rises in the coming years.
We'll see how it plays out when the playoffs come around.
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March 01, 2023 at 02:53AM
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Rangers Complete NHL Superteam with Blockbuster Patrick Kane Trade - Bleacher Report
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