General Manager Brad Treliving has said so himself, the Calgary Flames need another forward. In Treliving stating this publicly, we can assume they have their eyes set on acquiring another forward before the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline hits, which will happen on March 3, at 1PM MST.
Remember, the Flames brass has taken care of a bunch of future business already, including extending Darryl Sutter, Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, and Daniel Vladar. The one big name that isn’t signed beyond this one? Brad Treliving. If he wants to remain as the Flames GM, he will want to do everything in his power to make this Flames as good as possible.
With solid goaltending, defence, and centres already, the Flames’ greatest area of need is definitely on the wings. The Flames are likely to go down the rental route when acquiring a forward, as they already have major cap commitments for 2023–24. So, the idea of acquiring Patrick Kane becomes very intriguing—if he would want to come to Calgary.
The contractual situation of Patrick Kane
Fitting Kane under the cap certainly wouldn’t be the easiest task. The star winger has one year left on his contract that pays him $10.5M, and he has a full no-movement clause. That means Kane would have to agree to waive it to come to Calgary, so the ball lies in his court. Calgary is projected to be able to fit a cap hit of approximately $6.0M by the time the trade deadline comes around. So, there is the possibility that they could fit Kane’s salary if the Blackhawks were to retain 50% of his salary.
Would Kane want to play in Calgary?
Would playing in a Canadian market appeal to Kane? Does he want to stay in America and play for the Rangers for example? Or is his heart set on remaining a Blackhawk? The Blackhawks have gotten off to a good start and Alex Stalock has given the team solid goaltending. However, the chances of them maintaining this pace is relatively low, and they are fully committed to a rebuild on paper. All of that remains to be seen, and really comes down to one person: Kane himself. We won’t speculate on whether or not he would want to come here, instead focus on if the Flames should target him around the deadline.
Should the Flames target Patrick Kane at the deadline?
In one word: maybe.
Kane is a gamebreaker, a three-time Stanley Cup Champion, and fixes the Flames’ need at right wing. We all know the career that Kane has had, from his Cup-winning goal against the Flyers in 2010 to winning the Hart and Art Ross Trophies in 2015–16. Kane has put up 1,185 points in 1,113 games, giving him a career point-per-game total of 1.06 P/GP.
Players that excel at his level in playmaking, rush offence, passing, and transition abilities are few in between. While there have been some questionable occurrences throughout Kane’s career, the ability to get a player like him has to make you at least consider. He doesn’t have good defensive numbers by any stretch, so someone like Timo Meier or Tyler Bertuzzi, or even Travis Konecny might be better stylistic fits. But from a pure offensive perspective, there is no one else available that could even come close to Patrick Kane.
Kane’s fit on the Flames
Jonathan Huberdeau has mentioned the difficulty of playing with two right shots, as he is accustomed to playing with left shots in Florida. Add Kane to the other wing alongside Huberdeau and Elias Lindholm, and that should score you some points. Adding Kane and creating the following top-nine would surely turn some heads:
Huberdeau – Lindholm – Kane
Mangiapane – Kadri – Dube
Coleman – Backlund – Toffoli
You will also have a top power play unit that would consist of Huberdeau, Kane, Kadri, Lindholm, and Andersson. That’s pretty darn good!
A trade proposal worth considering
With the Flames in a window to win now, paying the cost to acquire Patrick Kane at 50% retained should be a top Brad Treliving’s list, should Kane want to come here. Acquiring Kane would put the team in a better position to win the Cup, and Brad Treliving to earn a contract extension. With the lack of cap space available around the league, the Flames have been extremely smart in banking as much as possible, as they will have the leg up on teams that are up against the cap.
It will be a tough task and there is no guarantee a deal could be consummated, but Kane represents the best player available at this year’s deadline. There are some off-ice occurrences that must be considered when making this deal, as you don’t want to harm the Flames locker room—something the Flames have worked on over the months. Adding a rental forward of Kane’s quality not only gives you a better chance of winning this year, but not taking on any term gives the Flames flexibility for 2023–24.
