During the current offseason, the Toronto Maple Leafs were rumored to be among the teams interested in acquiring the services of star forward Patrick Kane. Well, that potential dream of the Leafs in landing the three-time Stanley Cup champion was officially crushed when Kane signed with his former team in the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday.
But missing out on the star might actually be a blessing in disguise for the Maple Leafs. That is because they may have dodged a huge bullet based on the shocking deal that Kane ended up receiving from Chicago, which was a two-year, $16 million deal, as per Puckpedia.
It certainly makes some sense for the Blackhawks since they have struggled to surround young phenom Connor Bedard with some elite talent since drafting him first overall during the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. As a result, they have failed to make the Stanley Cup playoffs in the three years that Bedard has been with Chicago. The Blackhawks will certainly hope that the addition of Kane could jumpstart both Bedard and the team into becoming legitimate contenders once again in the near future.
Maple Leafs may have dodged a bullet with shocking deal by Blackhawks for Kane
However, in the case for the Maple Leafs, handing a contract that involved an $8 million AAV salary per year to an aging 37-year-ago winger probably wouldn’t have been the wisest of ideas. After all, Kane was receiving salary amounts of $2.75 million, $4 million and $3 million in his last three seasons. In doing so, he put up 47 points, 59 points and 57 points in those respective years.
But now to have his salary amount jump to $8 million this year with Father Time potentially catching up to him any time now is a big risk the Maple Leafs can’t afford to take. Especially not when they want the reassurance for a guaranteed bounce back campaign in 2026-27. Not only that, to suddenly add $8 million AAV in salary, it would make Toronto’s cap compliance that much more challenging. Even if they move the currently recovering Max Domi and his $3.75 million AAV to LTIR, they would be still ways away from being under the salary cap.
What that means is they could be looking to move out a body or two, potentially even from the pool of players that they added this offseason, just to fit in Kane. Doing so would practically ruin what Leafs GM John Chayka had in mind to reshape the club into a force that would be tough to play against.
As a result, as much as Gavin McKenna would have liked to have the chance to play with and learn from his childhood idol, or as much as Maple Leafs fans would have craved seeing two generations come together in Kane with Auston Matthews, Toronto should breathe a huge sigh of relief that they didn’t sign the star winger.
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