Evander Kane will get a crack to complement Elias Pettersson on the ice soon enough. For now, it’s about complimenting him.
Kane and Pettersson were among the 17 Vancouver Canucks who took part in an informal skate Wednesday at UBC, prepping for the opening of training camp on Sept. 18 in Penticton.
Kane lauded Pettersson’s “bit of a new look,” and “slightly different attitude,” and talked about how success for Vancouver’s forward group “starts with him and it’s going to be on everybody to help him out and produce offensively.”
Pettersson was, of course, a central character in last season’s Canuck soap opera, and the 26-year-old centre slipped to 15 goals and 45 points in 64 regular season games after totalling 102 and then 89 points in the two campaigns previous. Reports out of Sweden this summer have Pettersson putting on muscle and wanting “revenge,” on last season.
“He’s a guy who obviously skates really well. He’s able to handle the puck through the neutral zone. He has great speed,” Kane, 34, the east Vancouver product and former Vancouver Giants star who came to the Canucks in a June trade with the Edmonton Oilers, said after Wednesday’s skate.
“I’ve played with a couple of guys like that in my career and I think It’s imperative to help them create space through the neutral zone off the rush and, at the same time, let their attributes make yours even better. Getting open, finding the right spot to be to get the puck, reading off of them.”
Kane did play about a third of his 5-on-5 minutes during his three regular seasons with the Oilers on a line with Connor McDavid, who certainly fits the above mentioned scouting report. Vancouver’s top-six forward pack looks set — Pettersson, Kane, Jake DeBrusk, Brock Boeser, Conor Garland, Filip Chytil — so it’s easy to suggest Kane will get a crack to play with Pettersson. You do wonder if the McDavid experience could help them mesh quickly.
Kane’s a bigger body (6-2, 218 pounds) who plays an edgy game and goes to the high-traffic areas.
“You obviously want to play with the best players available as much as possible,” Kane said of lining up alongside Pettersson. “I anticipate that’s probably going to happen at some point. It will be about using our skill sets to our advantage to build as much chemistry and as much success as possible.”
Kane comes into this season with his own set of question marks. He played 16 minutes a night in the Edmonton Oilers’ run to the Stanley Cup Final last year, but missed the entire regular season with assorted injuries. He had six goals and 12 points in the 21 playoff matchups.
The Oilers were willing to move him to Vancouver for only a fourth-round pick in June’s NHL Draft, looking to get his $5.125 million deal off the books to create cap space. On the other side, it’s a contract year for Kane, and he’ll need to show well in Vancouver to get any sort of term on a new agreement, be it with the Canucks or elsewhere.
It does seem like he’s enjoying himself, speaking Wednesday about how the Canucks were a “young team with a lot of energy,” and how that’s “fun to be around and gives you a little extra energy.”
Even with missing so much action last year, Kane’s at 930 career regular season games in the NHL, meaning that he’d have a shot at that 1,000 plateau late this coming season if he stays healthy. He’s someone who appreciates the sport’s history.
“You look at the list of how many guys have played 1,000 games in the league and it’s a lot shorter than you think,” Kane said, pointing to the 408 who have managed to do it since the league’s inception in 1917-18. “To have a chance to do that in Vancouver in front of my friends and family would be a little extra special.”
Kane also has 326 goals in the regular season of his NHL career. He was willing to have a little fun Wednesday with the idea of joining the 168 currently in league history who have 350 or more.
“I’m trying to get 400 this year. Why set the bar so low?” Kane interjected, laughing all the while.
Kane was the fourth overall pick in the 2009 draft, going to the Atlanta Thrashers. He’s tied for third in goals with Chris Krieder among that draft class, trailing Matt Duchene (371) and John Tavares (494).
The fourth-round pick that Vancouver sent to Edmonton was the same selection that Edmonton had sent to Vancouver in the Aug. 18, 2024 trade that landed the Oilers winger Vasili Podkolzin. Edmonton wound up using that No. 117 choice on winger David Lewandowski, 18, a 6-foot-1, 177 pounder who had 15 goals and 39 points in 52 regular season with the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades in 2024-25.