Rumor: Eastern Conference team looking to trade for Evander Kane.

I have to be honest. After the debacle that was this last offseason for Evander Kane I was convinced that not a single team in the National Hockey League would be willing to touch him. After he got popped for allegedly faking his vaccination status I was certain that not a single team in the NHL would go near him, but it would appear I was merely being naive.

Kane has been suspended for the entire regular season thus far as a result of a violation of the NHL's Covid protocols, but that suspension only runs through the month of November. That means that in a few short days his suspension will be lifted and Kane will be eligible to once again play in the NHL, but there is good reason to believe that the San Jose Sharks do not want him back.

The problem for the Sharks was the widely held belief that no team would be willing to trade for Kane, but NHL insider Larry Brooks has just revealed that at least one team is in fact interested in bailing out the Sharks. Brooks did not specify which team was looking to make the move, but did eliminate the New York Rangers from the equation.

From Brooks:

There is credible chatter reaching Slap Shots that an Eastern Conference team has shown considerable interest in dealing for Evander Kane, the Sharks winger who on Nov. 30 is due to come off his 21-game suspension for violating NHL/NHLPA COVID-19 protocols, and no, it’s not the Rangers.

Kane is currently on a contract that pays him an average annual value of $7 million per season, a pretty sizeable cap hit for any team to take on in this era of the NHL. Brooks also added however that he believes the Sharks are willing to retain as much as half of that, the maximum allowed under the rules of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, to make the trade happen. All of a sudden at a cap hit of just $3.5 million Evander Kane may not look so bad.

Kane's talent was never in dispute, he led the Sharks last season with 22 goals and 27 assists for 49 points in 56 games on what was a non-playoff team. It is his issues off the ice that have made him such a polarizing figure among NHL fans and among NHL players as well. I must admit I can't see why any contending team would risk breaking up their current chemistry by bringing in a guy that by all accounts is a locker room cancer.