Former Canucks forward Evander Kane bolts to Russia
Evander Kane’s final stop in the NHL was with his hometown Vancouver Canucks.
Kane’s agent, Dan Milstein, broke the news on the DFO Insider podcast on Wednesday that the 35-year-old winger will be signing in the KHL.
“We had a couple of things here in North America, but in the end, Evander decided to take his talents to Russia,” said Milstein. “So we’re very close to signing a deal with a KHL team. Over the next couple of days or so, we will make an announcement.”
Assuming Kane doesn’t return to the NHL in the future, he finishes his career with 339 goals and 648 points in 1,001 games played.
Given how the 71 games he played with the Canucks went last season, a return to the NHL seems unlikely. Kane was one of the worst players on the last-place team in the NHL, earning a rare “F” grade from The Athletic for his efforts.
The Canucks trading for Kane was a bad idea from the beginning.
Not only was Kane on the back end of his career and coming off a season where he didn’t play a single regular-season game while recovering from surgery, but he was also an odd choice to bring into a locker room already dealing with more than its share of drama.
The Canucks also bailed out the Edmonton Oilers by taking on Kane’s contract without any salary retention, providing a division rival with salary cap relief while receiving no compensation for doing so.
What made it even worse is that the fourth-round pick the Canucks sent to the Oilers was the same one the Oilers had traded to the Canucks for Vasily Podkolzin.
Optics-wise, it was essentially like the Canucks had traded Podkolzin for Kane. Given how Podkolzin has thrived in Edmonton, that’s a lopsided trade.
When the Canucks season went sideways, it was hoped that the Canucks could, at the very least, recoup a draft pick for Kane at the trade deadline.
But the deadline came and went with Kane still on the Canucks roster. That should come as no surprise: Kane had sewered his own trade value with his poor play.
It’s telling that no NHL team offered Kane as much as a PTO to attend training camp.