McKenzie on interest in Kane from Canucks, Flames, Capitals, Sabres, Coyotes
/Bob McKenzie was on Edmonton’s TSN 1260 on Monday morning.
As part of a discussion on Evander Kane, and how he could still be traded despite the surgery and subsequent recovery time frame:
“There are teams out there that might sense this is an opportunity. My understanding is some of those teams that would go down that road now and at least explore the possibility: The Vancouver Canucks. Calgary Flames. To a lesser extent, the Washington Capitals. Three playoff teams that would actually contemplate the notion of trading for Kane, if it’s the right fit. Now, ‘the right fit’ is a big, subjective term because the Jets are not going to treat this moving of Evander Kane as a fire sale, and the other teams out there will say that what’s happened out there over the last week has damaged his value on the trade market.
“So Vancouver is not giving up Jake Virtanen or Bo Horvat as part of a package. Calgary is not giving up Sam Bennett. But those teams have sufficient interest in a player like Kane that even though they’re in the playoffs right now, they know that they’re still in a mode where their best years are probably 2-4 years ahead. And that’s even true in Vancouver, where I know the biological clock is ticking on the Sedins and everybody else. But Jimmy Benning and Trevor Linden have taken a more long-range view of asset management, and a 23-year-old like Kane would fit in any team’s wheelhouse of where they want to be 2-4 years from now.
“So those teams will have some interest and I’m sure there’ll be some talks, but it’s going to be a difficult deal to do. You’re also going to have teams like Buffalo and Arizona, the bottom-feeders, that are going to be interested in Kane and they’re going to make some offers. So it’s not absolutely out of the question that Kane couldn’t be traded before the deadline, in which case the Jets would get something tangible in their lineup to help them make the playoffs and maybe make some noise. And they’re a pretty good team. You saw that on Friday night against the Chicago Blackhawks.”
Source: TSN 1260/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey
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