The Patrick Kane situation and how it could relate to Slava Voynov, Jakob Silfverberg signing, and Auston Matthews in Switzerland

This could potentially turn out to be hockey’s biggest story of the summer. As you probably know by now, Hamburg, NY, police have now confirmed that Patrick Kane is the subject of an investigation, while the Buffalo News has reported that the subject of the investigation is an alleged sexual assault.

I know I’m about to bring up a controversial subject, just as I had during a previous Ramblings where the player being discussed was Mike Ribeiro. But again, by bringing up the subject and stating how horrible such a crime is, I’ll make this clear: I’m not accusing the player of committing the crime. We know relatively little about this story now, and we will no doubt learn more over the coming days.

So should Kane owners in keeper leagues be worried about this? I’d say yes, at least a little. The worst-case scenario for Kane would be for his situation to play out similarly to what happened to Slava Voynov. If Kane is charged with the crime, he could potentially be suspended indefinitely by the league while this incident is in the system’s hands.

The NHL’s decision on Voynov – closely following a time when the NFL was mishandling the Ray Rice incident – set a precedent for future domestic violence cases. The NHL failed to set a precedent when Semyon Varlamov was accused of a similar incident. But that might not bode so well for Kane.

Voynov happened to be on one of my fantasy teams. It was an inconvenience to my team to lose him, yet the bigger picture had to prevail here. That situation got me thinking: When do the success of your fantasy team and the actions of your players away from the sport cross over? In other words, have you ever turned a player down for your fantasy team because of you were disgusted about the way they conducted themselves on their own time?

If the player was a high risk to be suspended by the league or terminated by a team, you’d probably take that into account, simply because you wouldn’t want a suspended player taking up a roster spot. However, how do you feel about adding players such as Michael Vick or Ray Rice to your team after they have supposedly served their time? (Time of course could refer to either jail time or suspension.) Do you attempt to win with what you think are the best players because it’s fantasy and not real life, or would your moral compass take over to the point where you’d want nothing to do with that player, regardless of talent?

I use NFL players as examples in the previous paragraph simply because the NHL doesn’t have a long list of players that have had careers derailed due to serious crimes. But Voynov will eventually fall into that category. What happens once he serves his 90 days in jail? He is currently on the suspended list, yet he has four years left on his contract with the Kings (Cap Friendly). Keep in mind that the Kings are already dealing with a potential mess with the NHLPA in terminating Mike Richards’ contract, so a Voynov return to the Kings shouldn’t be out of the question.

Back to Kane. If you own him, what can you do right now? You shouldn’t try to trade him, unless you’re willing to take a haircut on his value or another owner is willing to bet nothing will happen. You can hope that he is cleared of any wrongdoing and that he’ll be back to playing hockey as normal, provided that doesn’t come at the expense of a true victim. It’s really tricky, but occasionally this is the cognitive dissonance that we face in living in both the real world and in fantasy sports (or perhaps as a fan of a team, in this case the Chicago Blackhawks).

I’ve probably said this before, but I will again. You come to Dobber Hockey because it’s the best darn fantasy hockey site out there; because you want to win your league. But at the same time, hopefully you realize there are far more important matters in the world today than fantasy hockey.

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Speaking of being the best fantasy hockey site out there… I just got home from a barbecue at a friend’s house. The friend, who I hadn’t seen in awhile, asked me for some advice about his fantasy hockey team a few years ago. I remembered that and asked him how his team did this past season, to which he told me he won his roto league this on the final day. When I mentioned to him that he should check out Dobber Hockey, he told me that he already had and that he credits the site for helping him win his league because no one else in his league bothered to. Great to hear of another success story, especially so close to home.

Do you want to have that success story that you can tell your friends at barbecues over the summer? Then you need to go out and get your Keeper League Fantasy Pack.  

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Now onto some other more relatively minor news items. Jakob Silfverberg has re-signed for four years (NHL.com). I think this is an important signing for the Ducks, who have appeared to have found a solid linemate for Ryan Kesler on the second line. Since I live on the West Coast, I watched the Ducks a fair bit during the playoffs last season and noticed a very strong chemistry between Silfverberg and Kesler. During his time with the Canucks, Kesler seemed to have difficulty finding a winger that he could trust, appearing to try to do all the work himself while ignoring players such as Chris Higgins and David Booth.

Fantasy Guide teaser time: Silfverberg is projected for 45 points this season, which is exactly what I had guessed even before I looked in the guide.

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Finally, I find it interesting that top prospect Auston Matthews is taking an unconventional route in attempting to be the 2016 draft’s first overall pick by choosing the Zurich Lions in Switzerland.

One advantage of a 17 year old choosing a professional league is that he will be coached by Marc Crawford, who can no doubt share some pearls of wisdom about what it takes to be successful in the NHL. Matthews will also be able to play against more mature talent on the ice, which could challenge him more. And of course, he’ll get paid.

However, he may miss out on playing for a junior program such as the Everett Silvertips, who hold his WHL rights. Junior programs are set up to not only provide a team to play for, but also support for the players off the ice through a stable billet family as well as coaching that is geared toward helping teenagers become professionals.

Regardless, if Matthews has a successful season in Switzerland, more top-level talent may decide to bypass the junior or college route and head to Europe to start earning money. His situation is worth watching, and not just because he might be next season’s first overall pick.

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Enjoy your Sunday, and thanks for reading.