Sure, making a big trade for someone like Leon Draisaitl (if available) in lieu of re-signing Patrick Kane would have been great, but Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman made the right move when he decided to re-sign the 35-year-old winger who surprised many of us last season.
Kane will once again be here on a year-to-year basis and you can’t blame Yzerman for that, thanks to the future Hall of Famer’s age. But if he keeps producing the way he did last season, if not better, keep him in the Motor City for as long as he’s still doing his part to help the Wings return to the playoffs and ultimately contend for a Stanley Cup.
Barring an injury, Kane will also give the Red Wings more than 50 games this year, and now that he’s had a season to get back into the groove following his hip resurfacing procedure, I wouldn’t be surprised if he put up a point-per-game after he came close to it last season.
Patrick Kane signing shows the Red Wings are confident at forward
I began this article talking a little about the Leon Draisaitl situation, and how a potential trade for him - if the Oilers were even interested in shopping him - would be ideal. But that situation was an outlier and one that was never a surefire scenario. But Steve Yzerman clearly believes he can get another solid season out of Kane, and it’s why the winger will return and likely average at least 18 minutes of ice time per game again.
He will be an integral part of a Red Wings team that also has Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond, and Alex DeBrincat at forward, and now, it’s time for Yzerman to start fixing something that is broken: The defensive rotation and the goaltending.
But it doesn’t mean he needs to make an outrageous trade or blockbuster free agent signing. We know someone like Simon Edvinsson will be in the rotation next season, and we also know Alex Lyon proved to be a solid netminder.
There are sound pieces to the Red Wings puzzle here, and one serviceable signing at both positions could make what was a serious playoff contender last season a playoff team. And hey, maybe by the time you read this article, Yzerman will have made an addition or two.
(Statistics powered by Hockey-Reference)