Nazem Kadri. What a player. Last night’s escapades against by Kadri were impressive. He covered Connor McDavid like a warm fuzzy blanket on a cool winter night and even gave him a nice hug a few times. By hugs I mean steer wrestling Connor to the ice or pulling on him for his overtime winner.
Those hugs weren’t welcome, but the player never was even penalized, except for his “dive,” which wasn’t really a dive at all.
None the less, as a superstar in the NHL, McDavid will learn how to face adversity in games. Remember when the Philadelphia Flyers hung on Sidney Crosby years ago? That’s the kind of treatment Connor will have to expect.
He will retaliate. He will stand up for himself but when you look at the team Edmonton has, there are lots of other players who will stand up for him too. The Oilers young players have long had to face this type of adversity in the past, but now they should feel comfortable playing out on the ice. If they aren’t, then you will see their game fault.
McDavid is a smart young man, and you could see him just laugh it off when Kadri gave him a shove into the boards long after the whistle. Already at a young age, you can see this stuff just doesn’t affect him much which is great to see.
Would you trade for Evander Kane?
It was suggested yesterday on Marek vs. Wyshynski (featuring Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek and Yahoo! Sports’ Greg Wyshynski) that Evander Kane was nearly traded at last year’s draft. Michael Russo, who writes for the Star Tribune suggested that Minnesota was a team that would’ve been interested. All three gentlemen agreed that Kane could be traded in the near future.
The suggestion for why he wasn’t was due to Kane’s arrest in July, when “he was accused of grabbing three women by the hair and neck in three seprate encounters on the same night in a downtown Buffalo bar.” Those charged have since been dropped if Kane can avoid legal issues for the next six months.
Kane has had a lot of issues off the ice in his career and it wouldn’t be a surprise to this writer if the Sabres looked to move on from him. While the issues off ice Kane has had in the past are obviously a huge red flag, the Oilers have managed to allow Zack Kassian to have a safe place to be. The issues Kassian had were with substance abuse issues, Edmonton was likely his final shot in the NHL.
Kane has a lot to work on to stay out of the limelight outside of the rink, and bringing him to Edmonton could be an opportunity for him to grow out of his troubled past.
Does Edmonton have the right mix of people to allow for this to happen? I’ll leave that up to you.
On the ice, I think he is a player that could have a positive impact for Edmonton. For one, he is top-six winger. I feel that the he could be a nice complementary winger to say, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. He is due $5.25m this year and next year before he is a UFA and if there was a deal to be done, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mark Fayne being moved out for cap reasons. He is due $3.625m this year and next, and it seems he has fallen out of favor in Edmonton.
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