The Vancouver Canucks have, for all intents and purpose, withdrawn from free agency. That hasn’t stopped them from exploring the market for marquee names that can bolster the club’s short and long-term fortunes, though.
As the dust settles on the July 1st spending spree, the Canucks are rumoured to be exploring the trade block for the next piece to their puzzle. Vancouver wasn’t connected using specific or determinate language to the Buffalo Sabres’ Evander Kane, but his skill, size and availability (Sabres general manager Tim Murray is tiring of Kane) make the connection all too obvious. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the Canucks might be in the hunt for Kane.
The Kane-to-Vancouver hype train was started, innocently enough, by The Province’s Jason Botchford, who merely raised the possibility of the two sides coming together. And to his credit, he also cited the possibility of the Canucks chasing Gabriel Landeskog.
Deep down, the Canucks understand their current roster is probably not enough. It’s why, quietly, they’ve been trying to make deals which would lead to the acquisition of another impact player, one Benning indicated is a forward.
“If I had a crystal ball, I would say we’d try to add a winger who had some grit and size to him, who can score,” Benning said.
Continued…
Could it be Evander Kane or the apparently available Gabriel Landeskog? That’s anyone’s guess.
These comments hardly cement the Canucks’ intentions, but it does raise a question of where their interests would exactly lie were they to pursue a player like Kane. 
The Kane the Canucks pursued at the 2015 trade deadline, he of the track pants episode and subsequent exile from Winnipeg, is not one in the same with the one currently floating about on the rumour mill.
Just six months ago, Kane found himself embroiled in an investigation regarding his sexual conduct. Specifically, the Erie County Police Department were looking into an alleged sexual assault. Kane avoided criminal charges and left the incident unscathed.
Given that Kane avoided charges entirely, there should be some level of assumed innocence afforded him. How much, though, is totally subjective. It’s every bit as fair to wonder if his “innocence” is much closer to non-guilt than a clean sheet; after all, even in the eyes of the law, the two are not one in the same.
Additionally, in light of the non-criminal charges Kane is facing for his involvement in an altercation with four individuals (three women, one man) at a Buffalo nightclub, you’re allowed to – rightly – let this colour your perspective on the events prior. The context of the gruelling, chilling and wholly disturbing details brought to light by The Buffalo News’ report on Kane’s conduct from the night in question don’t paint a picture many are particularly comfortable with:
Sabres forward Evander Kane put his hands on four people – three women and a man – at a Chippewa Street bar during the early morning of June 24, but he will face non-criminal harassment charges for his actions against just two women, two police sources familiar with the case told The Buffalo News.
The charges will be lodged in connection with grabbing two women – one of them by the neck – and are based on witness statements and surveillance camera video, the police sources said.
Kane also yanked the hair and grabbed the throat of a third woman, but she has not come forward to press charges, the sources said. In addition, Kane grabbed a bouncer after the bouncer warned the hockey star to stop his aggressive behaviour, the police sources said.
Attorney Paul J. Cambria, who represents Kane, vehemently denied the allegations and said he, too, has looked at the videos and spoken to people associated with the ownership of the nightclub and to his client.
We’re past the stage where Kane’s affronts can be brushed aside as immaturity, and the pains associated with outgrowing that qualifier are no longer necessarily considered a ‘given’ for a young player. 
Kane has shown himself to be hard to get along with at best, and violent at worst. 
Perhaps most concerning, this violence extends itself most often, given the allegations against him, towards women. Questions about Kane’s character appear, for the most part, based in reality – maybe even more so than I was ever willing to give credit in years past.
If the Canucks are interested in Kane (and, again, that’s speculation), they’ve a wealth of soul searching ahead of them. One can’t purport — as the Canucks do — to have a strongly positive influence on their community, yet introduce someone with a history of being as violent as Kane has been accused of being.
Acquiring Kane puts the people in this city — the exact ones that this team works so dutifully to do right by — in direct contact, on a regular basis, with a person whose pattern of physical violence suggests he’s likely a risk to their physical well-being. 
For fans, many of whom wait around in hopes of meeting their favourite players after games and practices, that could be understandably disconcerting.
The Canucks are, at their heart, a sports entertainment property. If they want to continue to impress upon the people who line their coffers and fill their seats that they are a force for communal good, then this is a player they can’t allow to represent them in the community. 
They don’t need a team of role models, but that doesn’t mean floating the occasional delinquent in their stead. 
It’s inarguable that Kane would increase the quality of the Canucks on-ice product. He’s among the most polished two-way players at his position, and can be counted on for somewhere in the neighbourhood of 25 goals per 82 game season. There’s obvious value in that. 
When the human price threatens to outweigh the benefits so handily as a player like this does, though, the Canucks have to ask themselves where their priorities lie.