The Patrick Kane Rangers rumors make little sense right now

Despite the Rangers acquiring Frank Vatrano, the odd story over the last day or so has been about Patrick Kane and the Rangers rumors. Following the Brandon Hagel trade, there has been speculation that everyone on Chicago is available. That immediately led to people connecting some form of dot related thought process to Kane and the Rangers. But this doesn’t make sense right now.

Roster and cap fit

Right off the bat, Kane’s $10.5 million cap hit is a problem. The Rangers can’t fit that next year without some cap maneuvering. We discussed how this could work on Live From The Blue Seats, but it was complicated and likely can’t happen at the trade deadline. Essentially the Rangers would need a team like Arizona to be a money launderer and take 25% of the cap hit, while the Rangers would get Kane at 25% ($2.625 million cap hit). Doable, but for a lot.

Beyond the raw cap number is the actual salary paid. Kane is due $4 million on July 1 as a signing bonus. You can almost guarantee that Arizona wants none of that, so any trade with them as a money launderer would need to be after Chicago pays that bonus.

Finances aside, the fit is odd. Alexis Lafreniere is thriving on the top line right now. Kaapo Kakko was meshing very will with Artemiy Panarin and Ryan Strome, so when he gets back that line should be put back together. If the whole point of trading Pavel Buchnevich was to open up ice time for Kakko and Lafreniere, then trading for another top RW makes little sense and is a giant bag of mixed messages.

Not what they need to use trade assets on

The Rangers don’t need another expensive winger. The limited cap space they have next year, and the oodles of trade assets, should be used addressing their center depth. We are assuming Ryan Strome is gone, pricing himself out of New York. As of now, that leaves the center depth as Mika Zibanejad, Filip Chytil, and Barclay Goodrow as the top three centers. Not exactly ideal.

To pull off a trade for Kane at 25% of his cap hit, Chris Drury would likely need to trade a bunch of the assets that you don’t want to see gone. Are the Rangers best off dealing these assets to address a true roster need, or to get a star player in the twilight of his career?

Don’t misunderstand that, Kane may be on the back end of his career, but he’s still a point per game player. He’d be a boost to a lineup that needs an offensive boost. Reuniting Kane and Panarin would likely have a positive impact on Panarin too. But is that the best use of assets? This screams early 2000’s Glen Sather. Have we not learned our lesson?

The Patrick Kane to the Rangers “rumors,” if you can even call them rumors, are silly at the current moment. There’s no fit right now, and unless Kakko is going the other way (plus a whole lot more), there’s no fit next year either. This one doesn’t pass the sniff test.