Screen Shots: Patrick Kane, Pittsburgh Penguins and Peterborough Petes

This is Screen Shots, an ongoing THN.com column in which your friendly author takes a look at a handful of different hockey topics and breaks them down in a few succinct paragraphs. You know the routine by now. Onward, ho: 

Star winger Patrick Kane underwent hip resurfacing surgery Thursday, according to Sportsnet. The procedure sidelines the 34-year-old former Chicago Blackhawk and New York Ranger for between four to six months, and that sets up Kane for a unique contract opportunity.

By this, we mean: if Kane comes back quickly, he’ll be ready to play by the start of the regular season in October. If it takes the full six months, he would return to action in December. Consequently, with so many teams tight against the salary cap upper limit, would it not potentially make sense for Kane to be healthy and ready to contribute before he signs a new contract? Teams that deal with early-season injuries might be ready and willing to commit more money than he could get by signing in the summer – and more importantly, teams would be able to do so because they’d have the accumulated cap space that comes with injured players.

Kane’s brief time as a Ranger was dulled by his hip issues, but in the right situation and back in full health, he could be a dangerous asset for a Stanley Cup front-runner this coming season. The gamble he’d be taking by waiting until the season begins before signing a new contract is a significant gamble, but we’ll see if the off-season market bears out a better, longer-term contract for him.

This is a weak UFA market, and Kane may never be better again, so teams might choose to ante up a three-or-four-year contract at a decent rate – certainly, not anywhere close to his $10.5-million cap hit this season, but maybe half that amount, or a little bit more than half, would do the trick. Would, say, the Colorado Avalanche be interested? Hmmmm…

It was telling to see new Pittsburgh Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas speak of a new Core Four he’s responsible for. 

No longer does the quartet of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander work for Dubas – instead, the Pens’ Core Four that Dubas presides over is captain Sidney Crosby, star forward Evgeni Malkin, defenseman Kris Letang, and coach Mike Sullivan. And Dubas made it perfectly clear in his introductory press conference Thursday morning.

“If people want to bet against Mike Sullivan, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and others, they can go ahead and do so,” Dubas said Thursday. “I’m going to bet on them.”

This writer still believes we’ll someday see Dubas hire current Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe in Pittsburgh, but at the moment, Sullivan has plenty of credibility in the revamped Penguins organization, and it’ll take something momentous – a disastrous stretch of the regular season, or missing the playoffs for the second consecutive year – before Dubas pink-slips Sullivan. 

The hockey gods have a unique way of reuniting old friends, teammates and organization members like Dubas and Keefe, but Sullivan earned his cachet by being one of the best bench bosses in the sport.

That won’t change now that Dubas is calling the shots. And the Core Four in Pittsburgh looks to be on very solid ground to stay with the Pens throughout the season.

Finally, my childhood buddy and retired pro goalie Andrew Verner and his Peterborough Petes have been a terrific story throughout the OHL playoffs (where they beat the London Knights to win the J. Ross Robertson Cup) and now, at the 2023 Memorial Cup. 

Verner is the Petes’ associate coach, and he’s now one of the very few Petes alumni who can say he was a young star player for the franchise as well as a successful coach for the team.

The Petes’ success has been particularly special for Verner, who was diagnosed with glomerulonephritis in 1999 and required a lifesaving kidney transplant two years ago. Just days after Verner’s transplant operation, his wife, Allison, donated one of her kidneys that was a match for a donor in dire need of one. 

Here’s hoping we all follow the Verners’ advice and sign up for the organ donation registry (found here for Ontario residents) to hopefully be a transplant donor for someone who needs help. No matter how the Memorial Cup winds up, Verner knows this has been a special year for him and the team, and he’s doing great things for his community and his cause.