Kane goes to Rangers in 3-team trade with Blackhawks, Coyotes

Patrick Kane
is on his way to the New York Rangers with the hope that the Stanley Cup follows him in a few months.

The 34-year-old forward was traded to the Rangers in a three-team deal that also involved the Chicago Blackhawks and Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday. He will make his Rangers debut against the Ottawa Senators at Madison Square Garden on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; MSG, TSN5, RDS, ESPN+, SN NOW).
"Certainly what he's done in this game personally and on the team level is amazing," New York general manager Chris Drury said. "To add him to our group, it's a great moment and great night for our organization."
A three-time Stanley Cup champion with Chicago, Kane has 45 points (16 goals, 29 assists) in 54 games this season, the last of an eight-year contract that contains a no-move clause that gave him the final approval of the trade.
"To get a player like Kane is outstanding. He's a great competitor, a Stanley Cup champion. He's exactly what we needed and we're happy to have him," coach Gerard Gallant said Wednesday. "It just makes our team a lot deeper, there's no doubt. A lot off skill and a lot of talent, but you've got to do it on the ice. it's a real good team on paper and we've got to make sure we're ready to play hard and compete hard and do it on the ice."
The Rangers (34-17-9), who are in third place in the Metropolitan Division, sent the Blackhawks a conditional second-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, a fourth-round pick in the 2025 draft and defenseman
Andy Welinski
, who was playing for Hartford in the American Hockey League. They also sent the Coyotes a conditional third-round pick in the 2025 draft for helping to broker the trade as the third team involved for salary cap reasons.
The second-round pick going to Chicago will become a first-round selection in either 2024 or 2025 if the Rangers reach the Eastern Conference Final this season. It's top-10 protected in 2024.
The Blackhawks retained 50 percent of Kane's remaining pro-rated salary cap charge, and the Coyotes made the cap math work for the Rangers by joining the trade as a third team and retaining 25 percent.
New York also got defenseman prospect
Cooper Zech
from the Blackhawks, and Arizona sent defenseman
Vili Saarijarvi
to Chicago.
"I'm so thankful for everything the city, the Blackhawks organization, my teammates and the fans have done for me and my family over the last 16 years -- the support was constant from Day One and Chicago will forever be home for us," Kane said in a statement released by the Blackhawks. "This has been an emotional time for me and my family, but I feel this decision puts me in the best spot to immediately win another Stanley Cup.
"This isn't about me leaving the Blackhawks, but this is an opportunity for me -- the Blackhawks did everything they could to put me in a great position and I will forever be grateful. It is bittersweet to leave a place that is so special to me, but I will always carry the memories we made in Chicago. I will miss the roar of the United Center, the deafening sound of the anthem and the people of Chicago. Together, we made memories that will last a lifetime like the three Stanley Cup Champions banners that will forever hang at the United Center. I look forward to this next step in my career and will forever be appreciative for all I have received from the Blackhawks and Chicago."
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Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson said it has been an emotional time knowing that they would be trading a franchise icon.
"It doesn't seem real right now that we traded Patrick Kane," Davidson said, "but we're] really excited for him to get a chance to play for the Rangers, play at Madison Square Garden with a really good team and we're looking forward to watching him be with New York."
The trade for Kane is the Rangers' third before the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline, which is Friday at 3 p.m. ET. They previously acquired forward Vladimir Tarasenko and defenseman Niko Mikkola from the St. Louis Blues on Feb. 9, and forward Tyler Motte from the Ottawa Senators on Feb. 19.
Kane, Tarasenko, Motte and Mikkola are all pending unrestricted free agents, which means they're considered rentals for the Rangers, but the goal is to win with them this season and figure everything else out after what they hope is a championship parade.
"I'm excited we were able to acquire the players we've acquired," Drury said. "We've looked at our lineup all year long and tried to hone in on different pieces we think we needed to become better and we're happy to be able to get the pieces where we did, back to 'Vladdy' and Mikkola, 'Motter' last week and certainly Patrick today."
It didn't seem likely that New York would acquire, or even target Kane after it got Tarasenko. In fact, at the time of the Tarasenko trade, it is believed internally the Rangers were worried about the cost to get Kane, and there was some concern about what could be a nagging lower-body injury that might eventually require surgery.
But Kane clearly had New York in mind if he was going to waive his no-move clause. He thought it wasn't going to happen after the Tarasenko trade and expressed disappointment.
"It's not like the happiest I've been to hear about a trade," Kane said on Feb. 10. "That was a team I was definitely looking at. It seems like they kind of filled their void and went ahead and made a deal. So, it is what it is."
Drury never lost interest in Kane. He just had to find a way to make it work financially. To do it, the Rangers cleared cap room by trading forward Vitali Kravtsov to the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday and sent forward
[Jake Leschyshyn
to Hartford of the American Hockey League on Sunday after he cleared waivers, recalling forward Ryan Carpenter.
They saved on the cap Monday and Tuesday by sending defenseman
Braden Schneider
to Hartford, but brought him back Tuesday after 5 p.m. ET, when they reassigned Carpenter.
They preserved the ability to make the AHL transactions with Schneider and Carpenter by protecting them from injury Sunday. Both dressed in the Rangers' 5-2 win against the Los Angeles Kings, but Schneider never got off the bench and Carpenter was limited to 13 seconds of ice time after serving K'Andre Miller's five-minute penalty that came with his match penalty.
All the machinations added up to the Rangers having enough space Tuesday night to take on 25 percent of Kane's cap charge for the remainder of the season. It will limit them to a maximum of 21 players for their remaining 22 games because of cap constraints.
"There probably wasn't another situation where we would push the limits so to speak, but to get a Patrick Kane, you don't get an opportunity like that very often," Drury said. "[We] felt comfortable in proceeding and see if we can figure out a deal. We're thrilled we were able to put it together."
Davidson said Kane made the decision to waive his no-move clause while with the Blackhawks in San Jose last week. He did not play against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday and left the team Sunday to fly back to Chicago, where he stayed until the trade happened.
"I think it was an impossibly difficult decision for him," Davidson said. "He's been a Blackhawks for so long and had so many big moments and has really grown up in Chicago. Chicago, I'm sure, is home to him and he's got a young family now and that's not easy to change at this point in your career. But I think the appeal of playing for the Rangers with some familiar faces and on a good team was intriguing to him and we were happy to be able to deliver that for him."

Kane is expected to debut Thursday on a line with forwards Vincent Trocheck and Artemi Panarin. He and Panarin played on the same line in Chicago in 2015-16, when Kane won the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player and Panarin the Calder Trophy as the rookie of the year.
Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider and Tarasenko are expected to be the other line in the Rangers' top-six forward group.
"He certainly walks into our locker room with a lot of credibility in a lot of different ways," Drury said of Kane. "Clearly we still think he's a heck of a player and is going to help our group in many different ways."
Adding Kane and Tarasenko to the top six also allows the Rangers to keep Filip Chytil, Kaapo Kakko and Alexis Lafreniere on the same line. Rangers coach Gerard Gallant has said many times this season he believes those three are best together.
"It's exciting. Any time you add at the deadline it's obviously a confidence boost for the guys in here that started the season to be able to put ourselves in a spot to strengthen our team and make a push, make a run," Zibanejad said Wednesday. "That's obviously something that's going to help you out and gives you a good feeling.
"Look through our roster, we added some pieces like we did last year as well to get a complete lineup, a complete roster, whatever you want to call it. It looks exciting. We get some time now to make sure everything clicks in all the different departments. It's our job to go out there and win hockey games."
The fourth line is expected to feature Motte, Barclay Goodrow and Jimmy Vesey.
"I'm confident in this group, like our makeup," Drury said.
Selected by the Blackhawks with the No. 1 pick in the 2007 NHL Draft, Kane has 1,225 points (446 goals, 779 assists) in 1,161 regular-season games.
He is second in Blackhawks history in points and assists behind Stan Mikita (1,467 points, 926 assists), third in goals behind Bobby Hull (604) and Mikita (541), and third in games played, trailing Mikita (1,396) and Duncan Keith (1,192).
Kane won the Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks in 2010, 2013 and 2015. He also won the Calder Trophy voted as the NHL rookie of the year in 2007-08, and the Conn Smythe Trophy voted most valuable player of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2013.
In 2015-16, he won the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP, the Ted Lindsay Award as the most outstanding player as voted by members of the NHL Players' Association, and the Art Ross Trophy as the League's leading scorer.
"Obviously, he had to waive his no-move to come here and we're fortunate that he did want to come here," Drury said. "I think he recognized it's a good fit for him, and it's certainly a good fit for us. We're thrilled that he decided that A) he did want to be traded; and B) that it was to the New York Rangers."
NHL.com staff writer Tracey Myers contributed to this report