He's only 25, but Kane is entering eighth season in the NHL and his third with the Sabres. Housley is the sixth coach he's played for. He's a veteran by all of those standards, and he's made an honest effort under the new coaching staff to set an example on the ice.
It's been easy, he said, in part of because of Housley's transparency.
"I think Phil's done a really good job of keeping things open, keeping the dialogue open with everybody, keeping things short and sweet and to the point," Kane said. "I think that makes it real easy, when everybody understands what's going on and what the goal is."
It also helps that was Housley's asking from the Sabres falls directly in line with Kane's greatest strengths, which are aggressiveness and speed. He's been one of the players pushing the pace in practice, and his aggressiveness led to two drawn penalties against Toronto on Saturday.
"Seeing him this year, he's playing with pace both ways on the ice and that's huge," Sam Reinhart, who played on a line with Kane in that game, said. "Everything we're kind of looking toward is pace defensively that's going to lead to and create our offense. It's starting with him and going through the whole team."
That includes setting an example for younger players like Justin Bailey and Nick Baptiste, two players who possess similar combinations of speed and size.
"I think he's come in with a different mentality this year," Bailey said. "He's obviously working hard in practice but he's more vocal day in and day out. I think it's great to see. Everyone's pulling together and I think our team has come together pretty quickly so it's great to see guys like him step up."
Fresh starts have been a theme of this training camp, with Housley stressing the idea of coming in with a clean slate to his players. Following an offseason in which his name came up mostly in trade speculation, it seems Kane is making the most of his.
"It's very important to be able to lead by example," Kane said. "There's definitely other ways to lead but I think first and foremost, you have to lead by example. For me, that's just what I'm trying to do."