Ice Breakers: Potential suspension has given teams pause on Evander Kane

Frank Seravalli has the latest on the Evander Kane situation in the Ice Breakers segment from Thursday’s Daily Faceoff Show…

McKenna: “It’s been a pretty wild last couple of days in the hockey world, talking about potential signings and one player, in particular, Evander Kane.

“The NHL sent out a memo on Wednesday to all 32 teams specifically about Evander Kane. What did it say, how much of an impact will it have on any team looking to potentially sign him?”

Seravalli: “I think it’s really cooled things off. You think about the flurry of interest that began early this week with Evander Kane formally becoming an unrestricted free agent on Sunday.

“I’m told as many as 16 teams had talked to the Kane camp, he had conducted interviews with teams, there were calls from players on these teams trying to recruit him. And then this memo comes out on Wednesday from the NHL head office, which basically says the league has started an independent investigation that will now look into exactly what happened with Kane’s cross-border travel over the holiday period.

“What’s alleged is that Kane tested positive for COVID-19 on Dec. 21 while playing for the AHL San Jose Barracuda and then crossed into Canada on a trip home on Dec. 29 on a flight. That breaks Canadian quarantine act rules and regulations and so that would also be out of line to travel without medical clearance as per the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol. Kane was still on an NHL contract at the time so they have jurisdiction.

“The interesting part of the memo was that the league basically hinting (and I’ve printed the memo in full on Daily Faceoff) that Kane could be subject to an NHL disciplinary hearing with commissioner Gary Bettman should they have facts here that establish that he did indeed violate the protocol again.

“So, why is that significant? Well, Kane was already suspended for one significant COVID violation back on October 18 for 21 games to start the season. He forfeited almost $1.8 million in salary for submitting a fake COVID vaccination card.

“Mike, you’ve been around a long time, you know how the NHL discipline system works. If he indeed had another significant violation, we could be dealing with instead of a 21-game suspension like the first time around, what does the second one look like?

“It’s all hypothetical at this point, but that’s what’s given teams pause. What if you’re looking at a 40-game suspension for Evander Kane? Would teams still want to sign him?”

You can watch the full episode here…