First, Kane is overrated. I don't like hot-cold players. Yes, he plays with speed, and he can score, and he is physical - all attributes that I personally love in players.
However, he doesn't do those at a high level.
Fact: He has scored more than 50 points ONCE. (2011-12)
Fact: He has scored 30 goals (exactly, BTW) ONCE. (2011-12)
That's not elite. He has scored 20 or more goals twice since then, and it looks like he might hit his career high on goals (on a contract year) if things continue working out for him, but this is not an elite player, but he will be commanding elite money.
For the above, I take him on my team any day if the price is right. However, I want him nowhere near the Flames.
Why do people keep posting that he has 'grown up'? That his past behaviors are behind him? Can I get some evidence backing that up? From his time in Buffalo, he has been involved in not one, but two court appearances for assaulting women.
https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/eva...190016589.html
That suggests that he is at least getting into trouble, or that trouble is following him around.. or that he is putting himself in situations that he shouldn't be putting himself into. I don't believe the civil suit is over with either, but not quite sure about that.
Then he had those restaurant rumors in Winnipeg that people accused him of simply walking out on the bill. How so many fans in Winnipeg soured on him not because of performances, but from off-ice encounters. How he is not particularly endearing to his teammates... the tracksuit incident...
There is just a whole lot happening around Evander Kane. I am not talking about the (un)funny cellphone of money, or push-ups with money tweets. There just seems to be a lot of stuff at the very least following Evander Kane around that I prefer not subjecting the Flames' players to. That kind of stuff is distracting. There are quite a number of young impressionable players too.
He may indeed be 100% innocent of everything he has ever been accused of, but the simple matter of it is that trouble does keep following him around. He is not that talented of a player to make me want the Flames to give up what Buffalo is wanting to get for him, and I don't think he is deserving of the contract he will probably end up getting this upcoming off-season as a UFA.
Simmonds, Neal, Landeskog, whomever else has been involved in rumors in the last 12 months - sure. Look at them and see if it makes sense. But Evander Kane? No thanks. I would rather not gamble on trouble or locker room issues erupting and having that kind of a distraction, when he isn't even THAT good. Especially not as good as what Buffalo thinks they can get for him.
Brings me around to this idea:
If Kane is so good, and considering he is still relatively young, why then is Buffalo set on trading him? Shouldn't he remain a piece of the puzzle for them?