Three Reasons the Lightning Will Not Trade for Patrick Kane

Cap Space

In case you did not know, the Tampa Bay Lightning essentially have zero cap space. Bringing in Kane without any salary retention would carry a $10.5 million cap hit. Even if another team or teams ate 50% of that money, Tampa Bay would still need to clear over $5 million in cap space to make way.

In order to clear out that much room, the Lightning would have to move out somebody significant to their chances of winning the Stanley Cup. That is something that they have been able to stay away from in recent years, so it is very hard to picture them moving on from one of their more important pieces.

The only roster player the Lightning have sent the other way in a trade at the last three trade deadlines has been Mathieu Joseph last season in the trade for Nick Paul. Joseph turned out to be a player the Lightning could live without in order to upgrade and it would take a lot more than moving out somebody like Joseph to make room for Kane.

There is only One Puck

Tampa Bay does not need to bring in another highly skilled player. They probably have enough of those. Tampa Bay has shown in year’s past that they like bringing in players who bring a different look like Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow. Bringing in a bottom six forward or a depth defenseman is something that is much more up the alley of what this team is looking for.

Another thing is that Patrick Kane and Nikita Kucherov are just about the same player. It would really be hard to imagine either one of them surrendering their roles as being the main man on a team.

Additionally, if you are bringing in Patrick Kane, you are going to want him on your power play. Kane has made a Hall of Fame career in the same spot as Kucherov on the power play and it just does not seem feasible for either one to take a step down from the role they are accustomed to.

Kane is in Control

Patrick Kane’s contract with Chicago contains a no-movement clause, so he is really in control of where he wants to go if he indeed really wants to be traded after all. Kane has done enough for the Blackhawks organization that they will likely try to make a deal that makes sense to get Kane to a place he would want to go.

Much like Claude Giroux last season with the Flyers, Giroux informed Philadelphia that the only place he wanted to go was Florida and they made it happen.

Kane expressed disappointment recently when the Rangers acquired Vladamir Tarasenko from St. Louis which seemed to pour cold water on any hopes of the Rangers landing Kane. Kane mentioned that the Rangers of course are a team that he pays attention to and at the moment New York has a spot Kane could step into on their first line.

Hate to break it to you, but Tampa Bay simply is not a dance partner for Patrick Kane.