NHL Notebook: Red Wings sign Patrick Kane, Blackhawks to terminate Corey Perry’s contract, and more
7 months ago
This is NHL Notebook, where we look at news from around the league that doesn’t necessarily pertain to the Edmonton Oilers. Let’s get started!
Detroit signs Patrick Kane:
I grew quite fond of the Red Wings as I wrote for Wings Nation in 2022. They aren’t quite my favourite team, but they’re alongside the Oilers as the team I watch the most. So you can imagine my happiness when I woke up to the news that they signed Kane to a one-year, $2.75 million deal.
Kane is returning from hip resurfacing history, a surgery that no one has fully recovered from. In fact, long-time Washington Capital Nicklas Bäckström took a step away from the game due to the hip not reacting well to the surgery after eight games earlier this season. He played 47 games, the most after this surgery.
Kane spent time between the Chicago Blackhawks and New York Rangers in 2022-23, scoring 21 goals and adding 57 points in 73 games. For a guy with a busted hip and playing on the awful Blackhawks team, these were quite impressive numbers. In the playoffs with the Rangers, he scored a goal and six points in New York’s seven-game playoff run.
Detroit is showing that their rebuild is just about over, as they sit third in the Atlantic Division with an 11-6-3 record, scoring the fifth most goals in the league with 74.
Corey Perry released by the Hawks:
Oh man, this is a whole can of worms. According to Charlie Roumeliotis, the Blackhawks have placed Corey Perry on unconditional waivers with the plan to terminate his contract.
As the Blackhawks are one to do, they have not been transparent with the situation leading to theories that respected journalists have shot down. Whatever the case might be, Perry would have had to do something pretty bad to be released from his contract, as he was having a good season. So far in 2023-24, he has four goals and nine points in 16 games and was fourth on the team in scoring.
I’d assume that teams are aware of what Perry did, so it’ll be interesting to see if anyone takes a chance on him before whatever he did is revealed.
Yegor Chinakhov might request a trade from Blue Jackets:
The Columbus Blue Jays aren’t a good team and, of course, will be sellers at the trade deadline.
According to this Brian Hedger article from The Columbus Dispatch, Yegor Chinakhov’s agent says the 22-year-old winger is unhappy with the team and is considering a trade request. This is quite odd news, as Chinakhov has only played 104 career games, scoring just 13 goals and 31 points.
The right-winger was drafted in the 2020 draft with the 21st overall pick by the Jackets, and set career-high numbers in 2021-22 with 62 games played, seven goals and 14 points. He nearly surpassed the point total in 2022 with 13 points in 30 games. So far in 2023-24, he has two goals and four points in 12 games.
San Jose has as many regulation wins as Toronto:
The San Jose Sharks are one of the worst teams in the history of the league as they own a record of 5-15-2 with just 36 goals and 90 goals against.
We’ve covered the team quite a lot in the Pacific Division Notebook, but they were the first team since before the 1967 expansion to allow 10 goals in back-to-back games. They are also a handful of games away from breaking the record for most losses to start a season.
Despite that, they have five regulation wins, which is the exact same amount as the supposed contender, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Now, the Leafs have a 10-6-3 record which puts them fifth in the Atlantic Division, but three of these wins have come in three-on-three overtime, and two have come in a shootout.
It’s not really news, just a funny statistic.
Ottawa and Florida have beef:
The Senators currently have a “buy one, get one free” promotion ongoing, and I was debating going to this game on Monday. Sadly, I didn’t go to one of the most exciting games in recent times.
The Panthers showed their chippiness in a game against the Oilers last week, but they decided to turn it up tenfold in a 5-0 win in the Nation’s Capital. Ottawa picked up 84 penalty minutes in this game, while Florida pitched 83, for a combined 167 penalty minutes. In fact, the refs assessed every one on the ice a 10 minute misconduct.
This is what hockey is about, baby. It would’ve been great to see the Tkachuk brothers fight, though.
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