Patrick Kane finally “comfortable” with Rangers

Forward Patrick Kane certainly made no bones about his displeasure after the New York Rangers acquired forward Vladimir Tarasenko from the St. Louis Blues last month, which appeared to signal the end of their interest in bringing him aboard as well. But the good news for Kane is that he eventually did get his happy ending. 

Kane would ultimately be acquired by the Rangers from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for a conditional 2023 second-round pick and a 2023 fourth-round pick; the conditional second-round pick becomes a first-round pick in either 2024 or 2025 if Kane is able to help the Rangers win two playoff rounds this year. 

It certainly is an adjustment when you come to a new team after having worn a single NHL uniform for the first 16 years of your NHL career, and Kane said that it was no different from him coming from The Windy City to The Big Apple. He's getting more and more acclimated to his new teammates and system, having tallied five goals and five assists in the 16 games he's appeared in wearing the blue and red of the Rangers.

"I would say I'm comfortable," Kane told NHL.com last week. "After the first four or five games I felt like I was getting somewhere and now it's like kind of at that place where you're in the mode of you feel you should still try to take over." 

"I know they've had a lot of success here, so I'm viewing these 21 games to just get myself settled in, figure out the way I need to do things, figure out the way I need to play and then make sure everything is dialed once the playoffs start," Kane continued.

The Rangers have championship aspirations, and will be looking for a return trip to the Eastern Conference Final, albeit with a better outcome than last year's loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. For Kane, his routine with the Blackhawks involved plenty of winning, having lifted the Stanley Cup three times in six years. He's now grown accustomed to his new routine in New York that he's envisioning being capped with more postseason success.

"You get into a routine for 16 years with things you're so used to, so accustomed to that you don't really have to think about it," he said. "Then you come here and all of a sudden you have to think about it, like how you're going to do your pregame warmup or where you're doing it, or what's you're going to need from the trainers. It's all things like that. They may not seem like meaningful things but they're things you have to dial in to have a routine."