The Toronto Maple Leafs Should NOT Sign Evander Kane

Locker room issues

As I mentioned above, from a purely on-ice perspective, Kane would fit the Toronto Maple Leafs very well. He’s skilled and tough and would undoubtedly be a fan favourite.

However, Kane would symbolize a glaring issue to many fans of the team and of the sport, if you’re good enough, we’ll always look past anything you do. Letting players get away with abhorrent off-ice actions because they make your hockey team better, is a slap in the face to the victim and anyone else effected.

Dating back to his time in Winnipeg, Kane has always been seen as a problematic figure in the dressing room. The infamous photo of then Winnipeg Jets teammate, Dustin Byfuglien flipping-off Kane has been symbolically used to show the troubles he had as a Jet. Like, showing up in casual attire to a team meeting, prompting Byfuglien to throw his tracksuit in a cold tub. Leading to Kane being traded to the Buffalo Sabres a week later.

I will try to steer away from speculation throughout this article as best as possible, but it’s obvious that this wasn’t the first issue Kane has had. You don’t go from being perfectly fine, showing up in the wrong attire once, to being traded a week later. Not to mention, the whispers of locker room issues by this time, there was clearly things boiling below the surface that the general public was not privy to.

Then, after he was traded and was in Buffalo, Kane was famously seen partying at the NBA All-Star Game the night before missing practice.  There have been other controversies and instances that have surfaced over the years as well but these are the most famous ones and in all honesty, these aren’t the main issues with Kane. If this was the worst of it, then who cares?  It would be a no brainer to sign him.

 Serious Allegations

There are a long list of various accusations levied against Kane over the years. There is no need to go through them all again, as anyone who is interested is likely well aware by now.  The point here is that the sheer volume of them is a major red flag in deciding if you should bring in a talented player who was cut from his previous team for his off-ice behavior.