After 16 seasons, three Stanley Cup titles and countless memorable moments, the Chicago Blackhawks and Patrick Kane moved on from each other at the 2023 trade deadline. It looked like it would be a permanent split, at least until Kane retired and returned to see his No. 88 raised to the United Center rafters.
Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson was clear that he was starting something new and his rebuild wouldn’t include Kane nor Jonathan Toews. He wanted to clear the decks for a new leadership group to emerge. Kane might have been willing to stick around had he been asked, but when he wasn’t, the idea of playing in meaningful games excited him, and he’s since chased that in New York and Detroit.
But situations change, and people change. The Blackhawks are in a different place in their rebuild, and Kane is in a different place in his career. And on Thursday, they decided to be in the same place again, as they agreed to a two-year contract with an $8 million average annual value.
“Day in and day out for 16 seasons, Patrick captivated the city of Chicago with his dazzling skill, creating some of the most memorable moments in Blackhawks history as he helped bring our storied franchise back to the pinnacle of our sport,” Davidson said. “He’s shown on countless occasions that he knows what it takes to win at the highest levels, and we couldn’t be prouder for Patrick to once again call the United Center home and continue to shine in Chicago’s brightest lights.”
Kane’s return to the Blackhawks connects the franchise’s past with its future, as he very well could be skating alongside Connor Bedard, his successor as the most electrifying player in Chicago.
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“I hope so,” Bedard said of the prospect of playing with Kane on July 20. “I don’t know what I can say to persuade his decision, but we’d all obviously be so excited to have (not only) a player like that, but also a guy like that. I can’t imagine his first game back at the (United Center), the reaction he’d get and how much juice that would bring not only to our team but our fans as well.
“That would be incredible to get to play with him and learn from him. Hopefully he decides to come back. You talk about the legacy aspect of it, but as a team, it would make us a way better team. He’s still an amazing player. I don’t know if this is the best pitch, but hopefully he comes back and we can play together, for sure.”
Kane, who turns 38 in November, is the last active NHLer among the seven players who won three Stanley Cup titles with the Blackhawks. Toews recently announced his retirement after playing last season with the Winnipeg Jets.
Kane already ranks near the top of nearly every significant franchise statistical category and now will have a chance to further cement his place in its history. He ranks third in games played (1,161), third in goals (446), second in assists (779) and second in points (1,225) in the team’s history.
In some ways, Kane never left. He has made Chicago his offseason home for the last decade and has continued to train at the Blackhawks Ice Center during the summers. He’s even had his own stall in the Blackhawks dressing room during the offseason. His No. 88 Red Wings jersey was hanging up in a stall next to 18-year-old Mason West’s Blackhawks jersey during development camp this month.
But Kane will be rejoining a very different Blackhawks team. Alex Vlasic, Teuvo Teräväinen and Arvid Söderblom are the only current Blackhawks to have played with Kane in Chicago.
Fans have pleaded for Kane’s return for years to play alongside Bedard, and help him adjust to his role as the team’s star attraction. The Blackhawks traded Kane during the 2022-23 season in part to help improve their odds at winning that year’s draft lottery and being able to draft Bedard. Sixteen years after selecting Kane with the No. 1 pick, the Blackhawks took Bedard at No. 1.
Patrick Kane has won the Stanley Cup three times in his NHL career, all with the Chicago Blackhawks. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
Kane isn’t the same player who scored the Cup-winning goal in 2010, or who won the Hart Trophy as league MVP in 2016, or who scored a career-high 110 points in 2018-19. He’s lost a step since undergoing hip-resurfacing surgery three years ago. But Kane’s game was never predicated on speed, but rather his hockey IQ, his anticipation and his singular creativity that made him seemingly every great player’s favorite player growing up.
He hasn’t lost that vision, and he’s put up solid numbers since leaving Chicago, scoring 57 goals and posting 163 points in 189 games with the Red Wings. Even at 38, he’d instantly be the best linemate Bedard has had since being drafted by the NHL — with all due respect to the likes of Philipp Kurashev, Nick Foligno, Ryan Donato, Ryan Greene and André Burakovsky. And a power play with Bedard, Kane and newly acquired No. 1 defenseman Bowen Byram is a tantalizing prospect.
Both Kane and Bedard have spoken highly of each other over the last three seasons.
“We talk about the fans and the city and how it’s such a great sports town; he’s in a great spot for that,” Kane said of Bedard in his first game back to Chicago during the 2023-24 season. “I think the fans deserve another long run of a great hockey player and hopefully great teams behind him. … He’s worth the price of admission. He does special things. He’s going to be a great player for a long time.”
What it means for the Red Wings
Kane spent most of his career with the Blackhawks, but Detroit had become home to his second act after first signing with the Red Wings in 2023. Last season, he hit a pair of major milestones for the Red Wings, tallying his 500th goal and becoming the highest-scoring U.S.-born player ever.
Losing Kane will sting the Red Wings’ offensive attack, as he was one of their top scorers, even at age 37. His 16 goals and 57 points in 67 games trailed only Alex DeBrincat, Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond, and perhaps even more importantly, he remained one of the team’s most essential contributors down the stretch. His 24 points in 22 games since March 1 trailed only DeBrincat, his linemate.
Perhaps most importantly, Kane was the Red Wings’ third-leading five-on-five scorer last season with 31 points and is a key driver on Detroit’s power play, which ranks fourth in the NHL (24.2 percent) since his first game with Detroit in December 2023. Even in a down year last season — the Red Wings power play ranked 12th at 22.6 percent — that unit has been one of the few reliable ways they’ve scored, with five-on-five offense in particular a key issue for the team.
Now, they’ll take another blow there, as his departure comes at a time of major change for the franchise. Larkin, their captain and top-line center, has requested a trade and while he currently remains on Detroit’s roster, losing both him and Kane in one offseason would subtract 50 goals from the lineup. That’s hard to replace. So, too, is his stature in the locker room, as one of the game’s all-time greats and a player with substantial big-game experience whom most of the Red Wings’ young players grew up admiring.
It also raises questions about the future of DeBrincat, Detroit’s leading scorer and a close friend of Kane’s dating back to their time in Chicago. DeBrincat grew up in Metro Detroit, but with Kane now gone and Larkin on the way out, will DeBrincat — who has one year left on his contract — commit to staying long term?
Kane’s age meant his status with the Red Wings was always a year-to-year question, and they were going to lose him at some point. But the fact that it’s happening now adds to what is becoming a summer of upheaval in Detroit. — Max Bultman
