By CJ Carlson
The Detroit Red Wings took a risky bet by taking in the veteran Patrick Kane for a meeting and later signed him to a one-year, $2.75 million contract. The three-time Stanley Cup winner had his choice of teams last season but decided upon the New York Rangers to potentially win a championship. It didn’t work out that way and he became an unrestricted free agent while rehabbing an injury. Now, he’s preparing to get back into it as soon as possible.
When the Rangers weren’t able to succeed in the postseason, Kane underwent surgery on his hip. That rehab process combined with his age likely pushed a lot of teams away from signing him anytime earlier, but that’s in the past now. When talking to Kane now, after news of his signing broke, he said that he can play right now.
Kane said, “With the way I feel, I feel like I could play tonight, but probably getting back into it, skating with the team a little bit, getting acclimated with the whole new situation and everything, and go from there. Hopefully it’s a week, 10 days, something like that.” If he can jump into a line alongside Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Larkin, then it’s going to be a highly anticipated first game with Detroit in about a week.
The Red Wings are currently 11-7-3 on the season, tied with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Tampa Bay Lightning in the division. They all have 25 points in 21 games. Kane said that the team’s competitiveness didn’t factor in much to his signing decision, only the fact that he felt like the fit was right for both sides. Not to mention that he’s played with DeBrincat before and the chemistry with him is already there.
There are not many steps left for Kane to hit the ice now, as he admitted to already taking a ton of contact to his surgically repaired hip in the past few weeks to get used to it. The only thing remaining for Kane is to get used to the remainder of the team and get his legs back under him before he can hit the ice.