{"id":485424,"date":"2026-03-21T11:19:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T15:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=485424"},"modified":"2026-03-21T11:19:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T15:19:47","slug":"patrick-kane-is-proving-he-belongs-with-detroit-red-wings-for-another-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/03\/21\/patrick-kane-is-proving-he-belongs-with-detroit-red-wings-for-another-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Patrick Kane is Proving He Belongs With the Detroit Red Wings for Another Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Detroit Red Wings forward Patrick Kane<\/a> is defying age, playing a pivotal role in their recent win over the Calgary Flames with two goals and an assist in Thursday’s win over the Montreal Canadiens. That gives Kane, who\u2019s nearing the end of his age-37 season, 12 goals on the year and 41 points in 54 games. While he\u2019s not the player he was in his prime, Kane remains one of the NHL\u2019s more formidable top-six forwards.<\/p>\n

Detroit Red Wings Must Prioritize Bringing Back Patrick Kane<\/h2>\n

Kane has missed time this season with injuries, but when you average his current point totals, he would have been on pace for 62 points across 82 contests. He\u2019s also a perfect complement for Alex DeBrincat<\/a>, and the two have connected for 23 goals this season, with DeBrincat providing assists for both of Kane\u2019s goals against the Flames on Monday.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Credit Image: \u00a9 Armando L. Sanchez\/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press Wire<\/span><\/p>\n

Heading into Thursday night\u2019s contest, Kane\u2019s 51.3 Corsi For at even strength was his best since the 2017-18 season when he was still with the Chicago Blackhawks. Kane also remains a force on a Red Wings\u2019 power play unit that has struggled this season, with 11 of his 29 assists coming on the man advantage.<\/p>\n

Naysayers might claim Kane\u2019s 8.8 shooting percentage is a sign that he\u2019s in more of a decline than meets the eye. But Kane has finished with a shooting percentage in the single digits seven times so far in his legendary career. He\u2019s simply not afraid to take shots at the net, and with 136 so far in 2025-26, Kane\u2019s averaging just over a solid 2.50 shots on goal per game.<\/p>\n

Keeping Patrick Kane Around is Cost-Effective for the Red Wings<\/h3>\n

If the Red Wings want to keep their core group together, trade for elite yet cost-effective talent<\/a>, and sign their most productive youngsters long-term, keeping Kane works in their favour. He\u2019s at the stage in his career where he\u2019s playing on one-year deals<\/a> worth $3 million with performance incentives.<\/p>\n

That would solve an immediate issue for the Red Wings at forward, and it would keep them from thrusting a player who could use more reps in Grand Rapids or isn\u2019t ready to play full-time in a top-six role into the spotlight too soon.<\/p>\n

This strategy would also allow Kane to slowly cede minutes to a younger player when the time is right. It would also come with little controversy, as Kane would be in his age-38 season. Everyone would expect players like Michael Brandsegg-Nygard<\/a> or Nate Danielson<\/a>, should they put him at winger instead of centre, to see an increase in ice time.<\/p>\n

Kane\u2019s Veteran Leadership is a Noteworthy Intangible<\/h3>\n

While the Wings core keeps coming together during a time when they\u2019re routinely in contention in March, they have also been prone to collapse<\/a>. Having someone like Kane around to keep overseeing this team\u2019s growth will remain valuable even if his ice time will slowly decline at some point.<\/p>\n

Still, he\u2019s been productive enough to, in a worst-case scenario, fall into a depth-scoring role on the bottom six once his days as a regular staple in the top six ends. He has proven that point time and again this season, regardless of whether he\u2019s scoring or putting teammates like Alex DeBrincat in a prime position to find the net.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, Kane has shown that he can step up and help fill the void Dylan Larkin<\/a> has left as the captain continues to recover from a lower-body injury. Throughout the rest of the duration of time Larkin misses, it will be up to players like Kane to keep playing a steady, solid game to keep the Wings in a prime position to earn a Stanley Cup Playoff berth.<\/p>\n

If that trend continues, then it\u2019ll be more than non-negotiable: bring Kane back for another year and let him help the team in multiple ways.<\/p>\n

Main Phot Credit: Bob Frid-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Detroit Red Wings forward Patrick Kane is defying age, playing a pivotal role in their recent win over the Calgary Flames with two goals and an assist in Thursday’s win over the Montreal Canadiens. That gives Kane, who\u2019s nearing the end of his age-37 season, 12 goals on the year and 41 points in 54 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5796,"featured_media":462198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,4547,4548],"tags":[299],"class_list":["post-485424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-redwings","category-hockey","category-nhl","tag-patrick-kane"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5796"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485424"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":485595,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485424\/revisions\/485595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}