Why the Canucks rolled the dice on Evander Kane, and what comes next

New York Times

8 hours ago

This is a complicated one.
The Vancouver Canucks were desperate for some scoring punch up front, for functional size at the top of their lineup and for a player with some experience and understanding of what it takes to win in the NHL.
Evander Kane meets that criteria to a T, even at 33 and coming off a campaign in which he missed the entire regular season following abdominal surgeries in September and a knee scope in January.
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This is a player the Canucks view as an exceedingly rare type. A legitimate scoring threat with the mean streak and weight to bump and grind and stand up for his teammates.
That latter aspect of Kane's game is something Vancouver felt it sorely lacked last season. This was a roster that just wasn't nearly big enough or heavy enough in the organization's estimation, especially following the J.T. Miller trade. It was a skill set the club was willing to roll the dice on.
Kane is the definition of a dice roll, although the organization itself doesn't quite view it that way.
The Canucks feel that they've done their homework on the player and the person, and know him to be a popular teammate with the sort of on-ice presence the organization couldn't do without. They view the one year of term remaining on his contract as a significant factor that manages their risk.
Much of the fan base, of course, might feel differently for legitimate reasons that we'll get into at length later on in this piece.
In any event, this is a player that the Canucks valued, and spent the past week jockeying to land. There was real competition for his services. And it was Kane himself who put his finger on the scale and picked Vancouver.
Kane's preference effectively allowed the Canucks to land him for somewhat less than some other teams were offering on the trade market, according to a team source.
Don't underestimate how much Kane's desire to be in Vancouver mattered to the organization in executing this trade. The Canucks are finding themselves on a lot of no-trade lists, and on July 1, they will likely not be among the more desirable destinations for the top free agents, either.
Canucks management wants to get back to building up momentum, and attempting to build a team of players that legitimately want to be in Vancouver — with all that it entails. And Kane wanted to play in Vancouver.
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Injured throughout the regular season, Kane returned in the playoffs and was a solid contributor for the Edmonton Oilers, scoring six goals and 12 points in 21 games. It should be noted that Kane came somewhat unglued from a discipline perspective at the pointy end of the Oilers' playoff run, especially in the Stanley Cup Final, where he took seven minor penalties, five of them in the offensive zone.
Trading a fourth-round pick — the one the Canucks acquired from Edmonton for Vasily Podkolzin last summer — for a bona fide, top-six NHL power forward on an expiring contract who can still impact games in multiple ways and who steered his way to Vancouver superficially seems like a straightforward, sensible, low-risk bet from a hockey perspective.
Context, however, matters significantly. And the context of this deal will make it a much more difficult transaction for Canucks fans to swallow.
Kane, after all, returns to his hometown with a fair bit of baggage accumulated over a lengthy career that's been shrouded in controversy.
This is a player who, and this occurred in Vancouver, effectively skipped a game following an incident with teammate Dustin Byfuglien in 2015, leading to his exit from the Winnipeg Jets. While with the San Jose Sharks, he was suspended for using a fake vaccine card during one of the pandemic-abbreviated seasons.
Kane has also been sued by a Vegas casino after walking out on a half-million-dollar gambling debt. He was accused of assault by a Buffalo woman in a case that was settled in 2022. He has spent years navigating a highly publicized bankruptcy. And he has seen a messy divorce spiral out in the public eye, with his ex-wife accusing him of wagering on NHL games and also seeking a restraining order against him after alleging physical abuse (NHL investigations into both accusations ruled that the claims against Kane couldn't be substantiated).
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'It's an honor to become part of an organization and team I grew up watching as a kid,' read Kane's post on X announcing the trade.
'Vancouver is a city that lives and breathes hockey, I'm looking forward to the opportunity to play in front of my hometown as I did many years ago as a Vancouver Giant.'
Of course, because it's Kane and seemingly nothing can ever be simple, he's already being criticized for potentially using ChatGPT to draft the statement.
Beyond Kane's many off-ice incidents throughout his long and largely productive NHL career, there's the hockey business context of this deal to consider.
Kane might turn out to be a better hockey fit for the Canucks than most anticipate, but this trade is an absolute gift to the cap-strapped Oilers.
The Canucks have effectively paid modestly to let a division rival get out of a $5.125 million cap commitment to a player that the Oilers were clearly keen to move on from. That might just be the market in the cap growth era, where even inconvenient commitments are baseline marketable via trade, but executing this deal is still a primary assist to the best team in Vancouver's own division.
Put it all together, and this is a fascinating deal. The Canucks view it as a low-risk, buy-low deal to acquire a physical top-six forward with a rare profile. Externally, however, the trade has been widely received as a Hail Mary throw in which Vancouver is buying low on a mid-30s power forward with significant character questions.
Adding Kane into what already felt like a pretty volatile locker room situation does feel like a massive gamble, especially given the uncertainty hanging over this roster and the way this team tore itself apart over the course of a dysfunctional 2024-25 campaign.
Kane is an experienced player and gamer who clearly knows what it takes to win playing heavy hockey at the toughest time of year, and that's something the Canucks needed. He doesn't, however, fit the bill of a high character leader that can be trusted to help the Canucks navigate the evident internal and cultural issues that have plagued this team behind the scenes.
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Presumably, Kane, who is entering a contract year, will be on his best behaviour with one year left on his deal. That's what the Canucks are counting on, anyway. It seems totally fair, however, to question the off-ice fit for this team at this moment.
Now that the Canucks have landed Kane, our attention turns to what comes next as the draft approaches.
In the wake of the Kane deal, Vancouver still has some salary-cap flexibility, with somewhere in the range of $7 million or so in cap space remaining with which to upgrade its forward group.
That space is earmarked for a top-six centre, and the Canucks will be aggressively looking to acquire a player that matches that description before the NHL Draft. They're motivated to sell the No. 15 pick in the draft to land that piece and are actively trying to do so, although they're prepared to make the selection if the right deal doesn't present itself.
The Canucks could look to create more cap space if the right fit shakes loose on the trade market. Teddy Blueger and Dakota Joshua aren't players that Vancouver wants to move on from, but they're among the established veterans with mid-range salaries that Canucks fans should be keeping their eye on as potential salary make weights if the opportunity to do something bigger this week arises.
In the background, there are other priorities that the club is still engaged on. The Canucks will try to extend Thatcher Demko and Conor Garland, who become extension-eligible on July 1. They've already had preliminary conversations with Calder Cup playoff hero Sammy Blais on an NHL contract for next season.
Vancouver's hockey operations leadership, however, is dead set on landing a meaningful upgrade down the middle. As the draft approaches and the dust from the Kane deal settles, that's the primary preoccupation for the Canucks.