The contract
Detroit Red Wings sign winger Patrick Kane to a one-year deal worth $4 million in salary plus $2.5 million in incentives.
This isn’t exactly what Patrick Kane wanted, but it’s everything the Red Wings could have hoped for.
After donning three different sweaters in six months — the Chicago Blackhawks, the New York Rangers and the Red Wings — Kane was hoping to give up the mercenary lifestyle and settle in with a three-year contract somewhere. After all, he spent nearly 16 seasons in Chicago to open his career, and he has a young son at home. But even after his impressive return from hip-resurfacing surgery, with 20 goals and 27 assists in 50 games with Detroit, teams were still wary of giving the 35-year-old Kane that many years. This is the next best thing for Kane, and an ideal, clever contract for Detroit.
Kane gets to continue playing on a power-play unit (and often a line) with Alex DeBrincat, one of his favorite linemates, on a team with legitimate playoff aspirations. And he gets to do it close to his native Buffalo, which always has been important to Kane, whose father, Pat Sr., still attends most of his games and even many of his practices. And Kane gets the no-movement clause that ensures he has control of his future at the trade deadline if things go awry in Detroit.
The Red Wings, meanwhile, get to keep one of their top play drivers with very little risk. The crafty structuring of the contract gives Detroit some cap flexibility, as the base salary is only $4 million, with $2.5 million in performance bonuses. Per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Kane gets $1.5 million just for appearing in 10 games, $250,000 for 60 games, $500,000 if the Wings make the playoff and $250,000 for posting 60 points and making the playoffs. If the Wings are a cap team this season, the bonuses wouldn’t count against them until the 2025-26 season, when the cap is expected to take another big jump. So Detroit can essentially have Kane for just $4 million this season, well below market value for the future Hall of Famer.
Is there some risk in signing a 35-year-old with a surgically repaired hip? Sure. But the contract itself is low risk, and Kane — whose game was never predicated on speed to begin with — showed he had plenty of life left in his legs and his game last season.
Contract grade: A
Fit grade: A-
(Photo: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
