- Patrick Kane opened his 20th NHL season on the ice Thursday as Blackhawks training camp began
- Chicago named the 37-year-old an alternate captain Tuesday, the same day Connor Bedard got the C
- Read below for what Kane says is still left to accomplish in his second run with the Blackhawks
Patrick Kane has three Stanley Cup rings and a scoring record no American-born player had touched before him. He is not treating any of that as a finish line.
Kane skated in the first session of Blackhawks training camp on Thursday and was asked what the young group around him has done for his own motivation heading into a 20th NHL season.
“You’re 37, turning 38 and accomplished some great things, but it still feels like there’s a lot left on the table and a lot left to accomplish because these guys haven’t done it and they’re pushing to do it,” Kane said. “It’s encouraging because when you make a decision and sign with the team, it’s going to be something new, but especially the way the last few weeks have gone with the team on and off the ice, hanging out with them, being around them, it feels like the right decision.”
Catch Kane and the rest of the room after day one:
The building is the same one he left in 2023. The roster is close to unrecognizable.
Teuvo Teravainen is the only current Blackhawk who spent real time as Kane’s teammate, and those two last played together in 2016. Everyone else is new, which Kane brought up when he described his first day back on the ice.
“A lot of it is so familiar,” Kane said. “And then you get out there on the ice and look at all the players, and everyone is completely different.”
Chicago opened camp with Frank Nazar centering a line between Kane and Russian rookie Roman Kantserov. Here is how the first day looked:
Kane signed a two-year, $16 million contract on July 23 and picked up a letter on his sweater two months later. The Blackhawks made him an alternate captain Tuesday, the same afternoon they handed Connor Bedard the C.
Bedard was asked at that press conference what Kane adds to a room full of 19- to 22-year-olds.
“When we talk about the leadership stuff, everything we dream of and want to accomplish as a team, we watched him do,” Bedard said. “He’s still one of the best players in the League, and that’s just going to add so much.”
The rรฉsumรฉ is not in question. Kane has 1,400 points (508 goals, 892 assists) in 1,369 career games across stops in Chicago, New York and Detroit. He sits second in Blackhawks history in points (1,225) and assists (779) and third in goals (446).
What he sees now is a version of something he already lived through once. Kane compared the current room to the group he came up with as a rookie.
“There’s some similarities with the way we came up in 2007, 2008, 2009,” he said. “You’re a young team coming up together, and you’re like best friends in a way. I see that with this group, too.”
That group won a Cup in its third year together.
