Hawks Corner: It's OK To Admit Patrick Kane Is Cooked

The Hawks ticket-seller isn't even really doing that, and it's much worse on the ice.

Hello all! Back from a vacation, and ready to get back to it. So let's return to the swing of things, though I'm a bit sore from a hellish trip home to actually swing, by returning to Hawks Corner.

I returned to find cutesy pieces on the Hawks like this, which seems to be almost Baghdad Bob levels of ignoring the reality of team. The trio of Connor Bedard, Patrick Kane, and Roman Kantserov aren't getting their brains turned into a fine past on a nightly basis (37 xG% together) simply because they're short. But being short definitely isn't helping the cause. None are natural forecheckers, or even forecheckers at all, and we know that they're all utterly helpless in their own zone. Get them playing defense and without the puck, and they'll never stop.

Kane was never brought back to be a 200-foot player, and the millions he's made in his career have nothing to do with what he's done on that half of the ice. Which is fine, as he'll go down as the greatest US-born player ever to enter the league (with Eddie Olczyk sprinting behind him to try and lend his stamp of approval on such a label, to the bewilderment of everyone), at least until Quinn Hughes hangs 'em up.

On the surface, Kane's numbers actually look pretty similar to what he was doing in Detroit, which was the production of a fine-to-good player, not a game-changer. Which is fine, again, because there are so few 38-year-olds who can be game-changers. His individual xG is 0.69 per 60, which is down a tick from last season's 0.76, but higher than his first two seasons in Motor City. His attempts per 60 are down to 12.79 per 60 from 14.09, but that's still higher than he was at two seasons ago. He's bounced between 12-14 attempts per 60 at 5-on-5 for the past six seasons, so this is all in line.

His shots per 60 at 5-on-5 are way down, 7.8 in '25-'26 to 4.5 this term, but considering the attempts and ixG are still within limits, it's probably just a weird spike of inaccuracy.

The problem lies when you factor in usage. Kane is starting 80 percent of his shifts in the offensive zone, an enormous spike from the seasons since he left here, which was the last time he saw 80 percent offensive zone starts, basically when the Hawks were letting him do whatever he wanted (on the ice, on the ice) to pad his stats and make him an attractive trade target.

Given that he's seeing a 40 percent bump in his offensive zone starts, you'd like to see any kind of bump in his offensive production. We're not. People can claim that he's being let down by his linemates, had to play without Bedard for a while, and that's not untrue. But Kane was also sold as someone who could lift whomever he was out there with, and that hasn't been the case.

Looking league-wide, only 17 forwards have 100 minutes of 5-on-5 time and are starting over 80 percent of their shifts in the offensive zone. Only Egor Chinakhov is anywhere near Kane's paltry 2.04 xG/60, and you don't know who Egor Chinakhov is. Shame that Kyle Davidson didn't, either. Absolutely no one is even in the same zipcode as the bereft bindle 42.2 CF/60 that Kane is putting up, with that kind of sheltering.

Of course, there is plenty of time for Kane to sort all this out, and for him and Bedard to find some kind of elixir to at least maximize the limited looks they're getting, in between getting pink-bellied in their own zone every other shift. That will probably happen, and the hope will be they can go Death Lineup on the power play to make up for their even-strength deficiencies (they can't).

Funny enough, the real appeal of Kane's signing, the fact that former Cornell Frat Boys would line up to buy tickets to see him back on the UC ice, hasn't really materialized, either. According to HockeyDB, Hawks attendance is down over 1,000 per game from last season so far. There are obviously a ton of caveats--it's October, there were two playoff baseball teams in town, the Bears are good (BEEEEAAARRRSSSSSS), the Hawks are way off the radar. But it's hard to see how that attendance is going to go up in the coming months if the team is already buried in the standings, which Kane is doing nothing to alleviate.

Whatever kind of prick he used to be, or might still be, Kane's desire to finish out his career where it's still home and comfortable for him is understandable and he's earned that. It's obvious winning isn't as important anymore, but he's won enough. But if the Hawks were envisioning him as some sort of offensive sensei to their wayward kids who keep eating their boogers, that hasn't been the case. It's one thing for Kane to just run out the clock in his choice of destination. It's another to do it on the ice.