Chicago Blackhawks Grades: Patrick Kane 2021 Report Card
Patrick Kane was himself this season, leading the Chicago Blackhawks as best he can throughout the regular season.
Patrick Kane scored a lot of goals this season and helped give the Chicago Blackhawks the best chance of winning. As we are in the off-season and look to begin our report cards for the year, leading with Kane seems like the best thing to do as he has been leading the team for years.
The Chicago Blackhawks are lucky to have Kane, and they are also lucky that he can play with anyone. Kane has seen a number of different linemates the past few seasons, but now he seems to have found a home with Alex DeBrincat.
The question of who should center those two skilled wingers is up in the air, don’t count out anyone just yet. Kane needs to get another crack at the postseason in his career, and hopefully, the Blackhawks are up to the challenge of building that team. Let’s take a look at his stats from this season.
Patrick Kane Stats Breakdown:
Games Played: 56
Goals – 15
Assists – 51
Points – 66
Corsi – 45.6
Offensive Zone Starts: 56.9
Defensive Zone Starts: 43.1
Season Grade: A-
Bigger Picture:
For a little while this season, Kane was a part of the MVP discussion. He was basically willing his team into the postseason and was putting up dozens of points in a relatively short amount of time. Kane was the voice in that locker room this season playing without Brent Seabrook and Jonathan Toews for the first time in his career.
In a very shocking way, Patrick Kane had another season where he put up more than a point per game. Now the thing that does worry me is the way he eluded to an injury after the season ended. It might make sense of why Kane only scored 15 goals and seemed to be pretty quiet after passing all his career records.
This was Kane’s 14th year in the NHL and he is not showing any signs of slowing down. Assuming he can come back next season healthy and ready to lead the team again the Blackhawks should be set to succeed.
Next Season:
As I just mentioned if Kane can get healthy this off-season the Blackhawks should be better next season. With Kane still playing at his usual level and with DeBrincat hopefully taking another step forward the Blackhawks could be real threats at making the playoffs.
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I hope that Kane can get another three or four years with the team in. It really stinks that this was another shortened season in his career. Kane is someone that is usually so consistent and can really do good during a full 82 game season. Hopefully, next year will be his year to win!