Vancouver Canucks Need to Steer Clear of Evander Kane
The Vancouver Canucks have struggled to score, and general manager Jim Benning is looking at another scorer. But that scorer shouldn’t be Evander Kane.
If you talk to a large portion of the Vancouver Canucks fanbase, they’ll tell you that they would like this team to sell off its veteran assets and officially kickstart a rebuild. But general manager Jim Benning has made it clear his mission is to ice a playoff contender.
It may not have been clear then, but it sure is now. On Friday morning, he appeared on TSN 1040 and covered an array of topics, but namely the team’s possible involvement in the trade market:
Benning on potential trades: "We have depth on defense. If we look to make a move, we'd have to look at our blueline." #Canucks
— Canucks Now (@CanucksNow) November 18, 2016
Per Canucks Army, he added:
I’m not going to talk about players on other teams. We’re in the marketplace, I’ve talked to all the other GMs. We’d like to add a forward with speed and skill… If we look to make a move, we’d have to use some of our depth on the blueline to add a forward.
TSN’s Darren Dreger also mentioned that the Canucks are looking at a forward, possibly Evander Kane from the Buffalo Sabres.
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Even though the Canucks need scoring, Kane is simply not the answer. Trading for Kane would likely mean moving one of their top young defenceman, such as Chris Tanev, Olli Juolevi or even Ben Hutton.
If Kane were a player that had Auston Matthews‘ potential, it would be worth it.But we’re talking about a guy who has called out his own team for not scoring, when he himself hasn’t lit the lamp all season
He still has assault charges against him that won’t be dropped unless he manages to stay clear of legal issues.
And finally, Kane has only scored 20 goals once since the 2012-13 season. A couple of weeks ago, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun stated a 20-goal scorer is exactly the guy the Canucks are looking for. Too bad Kane is not that guy.
Kane is under contact in 2017-18 for a cap hit of $5.25 million, according to CapFriendly.com. The Canucks are still refusing to rebuild. The six-year, $36 million contract for Loui Eriksson is a disaster in year one.
So why would sacrificing your future for a quick fix help the team out more now? And Kane isn’t a guy who is going to be a quick fix. He’s going to cause more problem with his selfish attitude and off-the-ice issues.
If Benning truly wants to add another scorer, it shouldn’t be a 26-year-old who’s struggled with inconsistency, legal matters and being a team player. The Vancouver Canucks need to look elsewhere for other options.
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