NHL launches new investigation on Kane, prevents new signing!

The National Hockey League has other plans in mind for Evander Kane. Earlier reports from today revealed that two teams were now into the mix to sign the free agent to a contract, with reportedly the Edmonton Oilers as front-runners, though now, the NHL is putting a stop to the rumours, for now anyways.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman just reported that the league “has notified teams it is investigating process of Evander Kane crossing border from US into Canada on Dec. 29.

“Kane tested positive for COVID on Dec. 21, and flew to Vancouver on the 29th. In termination notice from SJ, it was alleged he did not have proper medical clearance. NHL is now doing full investigation.

“This will likely prevent a Kane signing in the short term, as teams await the results.”

This saga has been well-documented. It all started over the weekend when Kane was placed on unconditional waivers and then bought out by the San Jose Sharks after he reportedly left the team’s AHL affiliate Barracuda to fly home to Vancouver for the holidays despite testing positive for COVID-19. Kane was allegedly still in the quarantine phase of his illness but flew home against league protocol anyways and then flew back to San Jose a week later than he was scheduled for. In effect he dipped on his team to spend Christmas at home even while being COVID-19 positive and then stayed at home an extra week… just because? Once Kane arrived back in San Jose he was informed that he had breached his contract and it would be terminated, resulting in him becoming a free agent. This, of course, is on top of all the other drama that Kane has gotten himself into in the past calendar year. Without rehashing everything in order he has filed for bankruptcy, gone through a messy divorce and was suspended for 21 games for providing a fake vaccination card.

While several reports claimed that Kane could sign with a new team shortly, this will certainly slow things down for now.