NEW YORK -- Patrick Kane is healthy at the start of an NHL season for the first time in five years.
He feels the difference physically and mentally every day. Next for the Detroit Red Wings forward is to show the rest of the hockey world what he's capable of doing after a full offseason of workouts and a complete training camp.
Kane, who turns 36 on Nov. 19, has one assist in Detroit's first three games. The Red Wings (1-2-0) play the New York Rangers (2-0-1) at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, HULU).
"Throughout training camp there are hard days, they're hard on the body but it's not hard on the injury anymore," Kane said before the Red Wings’ 4-1 loss to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Monday. "That's the fun part, not dealing with pain. That's a huge part of where I'm at."
Kane had hip resurfacing surgery on June 1, 2023, and spent the next six months rehabbing before signing a one-year contract with the Red Wings on Nov. 8. He made his debut with them on Dec. 7.
He played 50 games without pain, scoring 20 goals and having 27 assists. He re-signed with Detroit on June 30. He trained without pain. He went through training camp and into the regular season feeling as good as he has felt in years.
"Not having to rehab the whole summer so you can train and train more like an athlete, I guess, that was probably the biggest thing going into this offseason, which was exciting for me," Kane said.
The last time he was pain free in the offseason was 2019. That following season, he had 84 points (33 goals, 51 assists) in 70 games for the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Blackhawks played in the Edmonton bubble in the postseason after the League returned from its COVID-19 related pause and they won a round for the first time since winning the Stanley Cup in 2015. But that’s when he first started to feel the pain in his right hip.
He carried on thinking he could manage, that he could play through it, even if it meant he wouldn't be the exact player he once was with the Blackhawks, one who was named one of the NHL’s 100 Greatest Players in 2017. He was close, though, getting 66 points (15 goals, 51 assists) in 56 games in 2020-21, and then reaching 92 points (26 goals, 66 assists) in 78 games in 2021-22.
Kane, who was set to become an unrestricted free agent, was traded to the New York Rangers on Feb. 28, 2023, and had six points (one goal, five assists) in a seven-game first-round loss to the New Jersey Devils. But he realized he was now a shell of the player he was hoping to be when the pain first started.
At that point, surgery was his only option to not just keep his playing career alive, but to walk and live normally for the rest of his life.
So Kane became the third NHL player to have hip resurfacing surgery and come back from it, joining Nicklas Backstrom of the Washington Capitals in 2022 and Ed Jovanovski of the Florida Panthers in 2014.
It’s extending his career and changed his life.
"There's definitely times I have to keep an eye on it day to day and make sure everything is good, but it's not the joint anymore, which is something you can't really change," Kane said. "You can change soreness and tightness around the area, but when your joint is arthritic like that there's nothing you can do except just try as best as you can to get a little relief here and there, whatever it might be. The joint isn't an issue anymore, which is the biggest thing."
Kane's issue instead was handling the grind of training camp, dealing with the long on-ice sessions, getting through those as a player entering his 18th NHL season.
"I know we joke, but he told me this was his hardest camp in his career," Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. "Why he is the pro and the type of Hall of Fame player he is, he said, 'I needed it.' I think that's quite an example to all of our young guys."
Kane said he hadn't skated like he did in training camp in a long time, not even when he was going through his 60-plus on-ice training sessions after surgery and before signing with the Red Wings last season.
"You skate, but you don't skate to that volume and that intensity for that long," he said. "It's good to test it out and see where you're at. It's more mind over matter at that point. I thought it was good for me. I didn't have a training camp last year. You're pushing yourself as hard as you can, but I liked being with the group, being with the team and having a real training camp."
It was even better for him that he wasn't just jumping in. That's what the last two seasons felt like for him, first when he was traded to the Rangers, and again last season, when he signed with the Red Wings.
Forward Alex DeBrincat, who played with Kane in Chicago from 2017-22, said he can notice a difference in his longtime teammate and linemate because of training camp.
"Last year, when he signed, he had maybe a week before us, before he got in and he looked really good then, but obviously the summer of training makes him more comfortable and allows him to work on things," DeBrincat said. "He looks really comfortable and hopefully we can get something going here."
Kane, DeBrincat and Dylan Larkin, who make up Detroit's top line, have combined for seven points (four goals, three assists) in the first three games with the Red Wings trying to get back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since the 2015-16 season.
"He's looked great so far, but his presence in the locker room means a lot to this team," Larkin, the Red Wings captain, said. "As an American-born player you grew up idolizing him and he chose to come play with us. It's been a great fit. He wants more. He wants to be an impact player."
