Ok... This is a tough one for me. On one hand, I totally get the signing from many perspectives. Kane, of course, is a legend of the Chicago Blackhawks who, one would have to believe, brings a lot of pride to the crest, which is great for the many young players that Chicago has on the team. There is the sentimental side from a fan perspective, which is the side of me that loves this move. The marketing team is probably doing back flips into large vats of Goose Island bourbon with this signing. Of course, Kane will certainly be a big help to their power play, which struggled last year, and he will help offensive players hone their skills, and it gives Bedard someone creative to play with when e comes back from injury, which I am sure he appreciates, as will the fans...but.

This team was terrible defensively last year, and that shows up in almost every forward's analytics with no veteran mentors to "show the way" already. That is really tough for a coach who is trying to instill a trap-type system on a very green team. Kane does not help this one in the least. He almost seems morally averse to defensive positioning and to play below the defensive hash marks. Last year it seemed he started to warm up to it a tad with McLellan as coach of the Red Wings, which is another reason why I think McLellan should have had more Adams votes for coach of the year, but as a whole, Kane is not a guy that comes to mind that I want on my team when I am trying to mold young players to play "the right way" in a defensively dominant system. Offence is usually not the problem that derails rebuilds in the long run. We have seen many a team learn to crush in the regular season with offensive prowess only to crumble come playoff time. Chicago probably will not get there in Kane's time before he retires, but his influence will affect this team down the road. Those Chicago teams he played for were so stacked that I swear they didn't even have to concern themselves with defensive play a lot of the time, but when we look at who is winning today with Florida, Tampa and Carolina, defensive culture seems to be at the forefront of this much tighter league with more parity than ever before. 

Conclusion

As a pure fan I will have the Hawks on the T.V. a lot and it will be fun to watch.

As a person who revels in team building and taken notes on what seems to be succeeding right now? I am not sure it hits the mark, Oh yes, the 8 mil per is whatever to me. Will be off the books with little damage to signing in the future.