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‘Hockey is part of me and something I love. Opportunities in management would interest me with all the different experiences I’ve had’ — Canucks winger Evander Kane
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Published Mar 31, 2026 • Last updated 5 minutes ago • 3 minute read
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Zach Werenski of the Columbus Blue Jackets tries to keep Vancouver Canucks winger Evander Kane in check during Nov. 8 meeting at Rogers Arena. Photo by Derek Cain /Getty ImagesArticle content
The game has a real grip on Evander Kane.
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Even though the unrestricted free agent faces an uncertain future, he plans to keep playing. And even when the east Vancouver product finally hangs up his skates, the veteran left winger plans to do more than just hang around rinks as a fan.
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Kane, 34, hit the 1,000-game NHL plateau Monday in Las Vegas and believes he could eventually transition into a front-office hockey position. If that seems like somewhat of a stretch, he has seen all the good and bad the game has to offer with five teams, plus the trappings of earning a very good living and having a really great time.
Maybe there’s value in all that to relate to today’s young, impressionable and well-compensated players from a management perspective. They’re wired to win but dealing with adversity on and off the ice often requires a been-there-done-that voice of reason. And Kane also knows what it takes to become a player at the NHL level because he twice hit the 30-goal plateau.
“Hockey is a part of me and something I love,” Kane told Postmedia. “I love all aspects of it and I like the business side and management side. Opportunities in management would interest me, and with all the different experiences I’ve had, it could set me up well for something like that down the road.
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“It’s definitely something I keep in the back of my mind and we’ll see at some point.”
Kane excelled with the Vancouver Giants and won a Memorial Cup in 2007 at age 15, and even at the WHL level, he was a blossoming and brooding talent, who would learn hard life lessons along the way. His WHL on-ice preparation came from legendary and demanding bench boss Don Hay, and all of his off-ice adventures as a professional came from personal trial and a lot of error.
Evander Kane of the Vancouver Giants celebrates his goal against Spokane Chiefs during WHL playoffs at Pacific Coliseum on April 4, 2009. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /PROVINCE
Hay’s effect had a lot to do with Kane’s maturation as a player and maybe that’s something he could impart to young NHL players.
“Don was great,” stressed Kane. “Obviously, when you get to major junior hockey it’s different level and your first experience in a pro setting. He was fantastic. An incredible coach for me and he wanted his team to play a certain brand of hockey and have a certain attitude. It really aligned with my style.
“And when you do a lot of winning, good things happen. I had that culture in minor hockey and it really took off when I got to that (Giants) organization.”
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Hay and Kane were cut from the same competitive cloth that was often more like burlap.
“As a coach, you have to be stubborn, and he was coachable,” recalled Hay. “But I was firm and direct with him and he responded to that. He was suited for me and I was suited for him at that stage of his career. He believes in himself and what he brings. That’s the biggest thing.
“He might rub some people the wrong way, but I really admired his competitiveness.”
Kane was a fourth-overall NHL Draft pick of the Atlanta Thrashers in 2009, but was ill-prepared for pro life in a big city and on a bad team. He lived by himself. He didn’t have a billet family — which was really something beyond belief — or even that vital veteran for instruction and direction for proper deportment.
It was a recipe for distractions and there were plenty.
And maybe that’s the point in all of this. Time flies and paying it back on some level is cathartic for any player on the back nine of his career. It’s why Kane has been a willing voice of reason with a young crop of Canucks transiting to a roster rebuild.
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“It (career) goes by quick and you hear people tell you that all the time,” said Kane. “Even when I talk to our young guys, I tell them to make sure they enjoy it and have some fun. You don’t want to look back and wish I would have done that or had done this. Or, just going out for a beer.
“It’s about stories. That’s what you’re going to remember the most.”
And Kane certainly has a lot of stories to tell.
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