Patrick Kane heads to long term injured reserve, opens Chicago trade options
Patrick Kane’s reported bad upper-body injury appears to be quite as awful as feared for the Chicago Blackhawks.
The team put the NHL’s leading scorer on long-term injured reserve Wednesday and recalled Teuvo Teravainen from its American Hockey League affiliate it announced.
Though we still don’t have definitive detail on Kane’s problem, outside of the ever descriptive “upper-body” problem, this at least lends some further clarification on his timeline. For one, it’s going to be long, at least 10 games or 24 days.
Second, this gives the Blackhawks some flexibility as to what to do moving forward. According to Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times, the Blackhawks will have around $5 million of extra salary cap space because of the LTIR decision.
So if you’re a scoring winger, and you’re grumpy, and you want out – Chicago probably wants you. Or maybe you’ve just worn out your welcome where you are. Or maybe your name is Antoine Vermette, and you’re a decent rent-a-player until when Kane comes back.
Said coach Joel Quenneville after Tuesday’s game against Florida where Kane was hurt via CSN Chicago:
“He’s leading scorer on our team and certainly a very valuable asset. He makes a lot of things work for us,” Quenneville said. “Certainly Kaner doesn’t miss much. You miss a valuable guy, a buddy. He’s having one of those years that’s very noticeable. But guys still have to stick with it, go with what you’ve got and contribute as best you can.”
At least even in injury times, the Blackhawks continue with the whole absurd use of nicknames thing.
Regardless, there’s no way whoever Chicago will get can replace Kane and what he brings to the lineup. He’s won two Stanley Cups, a Conn Smythe Trophy. He’s a megastar in every sense of the term. Ouch.
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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
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