The NHL trade deadline is Friday, and the phones in front offices are heating up.
The Chicago Tribune is tracking all of the Chicago Blackhawks’ arrivals, departures and rumors, with insight along the way.
Patrick Kane and Sam Lafferty scratched from Saturday’s game.
The Blackhawks will scratch forwards Patrick Kane and Sam Lafferty, both the subject of trade rumors, from Saturday’s game against the Sharks in San Jose, Calif., for “roster management.”
TSN columnist Pierre LeBrun tweeted a statement from Kane’s agent Patt Brisson: “Based on the current status of Patrick’s situation, we collectively felt it was more appropriate to have him not play during this period of reflection.”
Hawks coach Luke Richardson confirmed Kane flew back to Chicago.
“Yeah, he has left this morning,” Richardson told reporters. “He was with the team yesterday but as a of today he has flown back to Chicago until the situation rectifies itself either way.”
Richardson said Lafferty was still in San Jose.
Kane and Lafferty have been rumored to be trade candidates in recent weeks, while Kane has expressed an interest in the New York Rangers. The Rangers scratched Vitali Kravtsov and Jake Leschyshyn for a second consecutive game Saturday for roster management, a move teams can use to prevent the risk of injury or clear cap space.
Leschyshyn ($766,667 cap hit) later was placed on waivers, according to reports.
The Rangers traded Kravstov to the Vancouver Canucks for prospect William Lockwood and a 2026 seventh-round pick while also clearing $875,000 in cap space.
According to New York media reports, the Rangers likely will need a third team to act as a “banker” to retain some of Kane’s cap hit. He’s in the final season of his eight-year, $84 million contract ($10.5 million annual cap hit).
The Hawks are limited by cap rules to retain no more than 50% of Kane’s salary. The Rangers had been tight against the upper limit. Just $908,667 would have been available — and that’s if they waited until Friday’s trade deadline, according to CapFriendly.com.
But trading Kravstov brought the Rangers’ cap space to $1.67 million. And sending Leschyshyn to the minors or waiting for him to be claimed off waivers will raise that number to about $2.4 million, close to the $2.65 million (25%) they’ll need, pending another move and assuming a third team helps broker the deal.
If the teams can make a deal work, Kane would leave as one of the greatest and most decorated Hawks of all time. His 1,225 points, 1,161 games and 67 game-winning goals rank second, third and fourth in franchise history, respectively.
The No. 1 pick in the 2007 draft is regarded as one of the greatest American hockey players: three Stanley Cups (2010, ‘13 and ‘15), Olympic appearances in 2010 (silver) and 2014, 2007-08 Calder Trophy winner (top rookie), first U.S.-born player to win the Hart Trophy as the regular-season MVP in 2015-16, Art Ross winner (points leader) in the same season, 2012-13 Conn Smythe recipient as playoff MVP and nine All-Star games.
While the Rangers try to make the math work, the Hawks will assess the human impact
“We’ve msssed him a few games this year, but he’s such a focal point of the team, seeing him on the video this morning it’s a different feeling him not being here,” Richardson said of Kane.
Lafferty, 27, has been a surprise addition to the trade-rumor mill with seven goals and five assists in 22 games since Jan. 1. He’s a strong depth forward and penalty killer and has matched his career high at the faceoff dot at 52.4%.
“It’s hard to wrap your head around (the trade buzz), it’s just so out of (your) control,” Lafferty recently told the Tribune. “Everyone here has trusted me and put me in a lot of situations. So that builds your confidence.”
