New Blackhawks Defenseman Will Have An Important Role
This new Blackhawks defenseman will be good for the Original Six club to have around.
Video Transcript
Now, Mike, obviously at age 37, we know this contract will take him through age 39.
The Blackhawks are not bringing back prime Patrick Kane at this point.
But, do you think that it was a smart decision to bring him back in, in what he actually can provide to the team now?
And obviously, this isn't just sort of It's not just a vibes hire, right?
They're-- he's actually gonna contribute, but not to the same level that he did when he was first with the Blackhawks.
And do you think it was a smart decision to bring him back?
And, and what do you think about the terms of the deal?
Well, they had $29 million in cap space, so $8 million a year this year and next year, it's not gonna really affect them that much.
It helps them get to the cap floor.
They have a lot of players on entry-level contracts.
I sort of compare it to with Patrick Marleau going to Toronto a few years back.
It's a veteran guy who still can play.
They have a lot of young players, and they sort of wanna have him show them the way to win a championship.
Even though he's not at that level anymore, he can sort of convey to the Nazars and the Lyubushuns and some of the younger players, you know, what it takes to be a champion.
I just find it funny, I mean, because all we heard for probably the last month to six weeks was that it was Buffalo and Chicago.
I think, I think, Chris Chelios on a Chicago radio station said it was between Buffalo and Chicago.
And then you started to hear, well, he may not wanna do what Jonathan Toews did, which was go home to Winnipeg and not be the Jonathan Toews, that he was previous to his, his departure from the NHL, which I think was two or three years.
We know Kane can still can play, but we know he's not the Kane of old.
But I think there was a PR component here, and you had Bedard lobbying him, and you had, you know, Kyle Davidson saying, "Well, we're not gonna We're not sure.
We're not gonna talk about this openly."
When, yeah, they were really going full court press on this.
T- at Buffalo, where it's only gonna be able to pay him probably three to four million dollars a year, and he gets two times eight million.
I don't think he needs the money anymore, but he's going back home.
I think he's es- essentially guaranteeing that statue outside of the United Center, along with Toews, and he gets to play and put number 88 on the, on, yeah, on his back again for, for a couple more years.
