Shout out to all the TV hockey pundits for what they have to do on Friday because the trade deadline seems to be an impetus to get things done now rather than having teams wait to the last minute. There have been a slew of significant trades over the last few days and one more big name came off the board as the likely Kane-To-New-York trade finally came through (first broken by Frank Seravalli):

The picks don't matter so let's get to Kane.

What New York Gets

There are two schools of thought here:

1. Patrick Kane is having a bad season because he's in full-throttled decline.
2. Patrick Kane is having a bad season because Chicago is awful and he didn't want to push as hard as normal.

To start with the second part first, that is entirely possible. Kane wouldn't be the first NHL veteran to check out at times in a season that was a tank year from the outset. Regardless of the reason the offensive drop-off was massive, and in more than just goals and points:

• Corey Sznajder's tracking data had Kane generating the same number of scoring chances at 5-on-5, for himself or for teammates, in 2021-22 as names like Andrei Svechnikov, Artemi Panarin, and Jordan Kyrou – that is really good. Conversely, in 2022-23, he is below average by individual scoring chances and his total contributions are similar to Jonathan Huberdeau's, and he's having a similarly bad season (for him).
• The team is generating just 24.6 shots per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 with Kane on the ice, a number that was 26% higher a year ago, and is 13% worse than his previous career-low.

He is generating less, the team is generating much less as a result, and we get this season he's had. He missed Alex DeBrincat.

There has been a drop in many areas, but this Chicago team truly is awful. Per the same tracking data, they don't have a single forward that is above average by both individual scoring chances and assists on teammate scoring chances. Arizona has two of these players while Montreal has four, for reference. Chicago was intentionally made to be as a bad team and it clearly had an effect on Kane.

All that is what makes me believe that yes, maybe he didn't give it 100% effort every game, but there are still good signs here. His rate of scoring chance assists (assisting on a teammate's scoring chance) is 4.7 per 60 minutes. Mark Scheifele, for reference, is at 4.4 while Sebastian Aho is at 4.8. Kane was still doing his best to set up his teammates but when your top scorer is Max Domi, a guy averaging 18 goals every 82 games over his last four seasons, the offence is going to suffer.

There is still some offensive juice here, and maybe a lot depending on the rebound he sees. His problem, for years, has been awful defence and there's no reason to imagine it'll get better with the Rangers. Does he have enough offence in him to play a top-6 role, have it outweigh the defensive issues, which assures his ice time?

The answer to that question is "we'll see" but it seems obvious this trade was done with the idea of having him and Vladimir Tarasenko as their top two right wingers. Personally, having Kane with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider would make more sense, in my opinion, because they need someone who can facilitate, and Kane is still better than Tarasenko in this regard. Meanwhile, the second line needs the opposite. Regardless, there is a good chance he starts with top-6/top PP minutes with the Rangers and that's about as good as it can get for him, fantasy-wise. He was still putting up 3.4 shots per game on an offensively inept squad. If he can maintain that, while greatly improving his quality of line mates, there could be a huge offensive rebound here.

This is very bad news for the fantasy values for the entire Kids Line and Jimmy Vesey. Vesey had been seeing some top-6 minutes while different members of the Kids Line had often found themselves in the top-6 with secondary PP time. With all three of those young forwards on PP2 alongside Vincent Trocheck, someone is losing their role with Kane coming in. Whether it's Kane going to PP2 directly, or Kane bumping someone from PP1 and that person bumping someone else from PP2, one of those guys is going to lose their PPTOI. My guess is Kaapo Kakko but it's just a guess.

Not sure what this means for Chicago. They're going to have some guys no one outside of Rockford Icehog fans or prospects analysts have heard of on the roster. It's going to be awful to watch and other than whomever is already top PP for Chicago, fantasy value is nil (and will get worse once Max Domi is traded).

Who This Helps

Patrick Kane

Andreas Athanasiou

Mika Zibanejad

Artemi Panarin

Who This Hurts

Kaapo Kakko

Alexis Lafrenière

Jimmy Vesey

Max Domi (for now)

Igor Shesterkin