SEATTLE -- The first time Patrick Kane chose to play in Detroit, he was a freshman in high school.
It was 2003. He was 14, about to turn 15 on Nov. 19 of that year. Former NHL forward Pat Verbeek was coaching an elite team, Honeybaked 16U AAA, while working as a TV color analyst for the Detroit Red Wings, and had a spare bedroom at his house in the suburb of Birmingham, Michigan.
“I just recruited him,” Verbeek, now the general manager of the Anaheim Ducks, said at the NHL Board of Governors meeting in Seattle this week. “Part of recruiting was being able to provide a home, a home that would obviously be with a hockey background. So that’s kind of how it went.”
It’s interesting to look back on that in the wake of Kane’s decision to sign a one-year, $2.75 million contract with the Red Wings as an unrestricted free agent Nov. 28.
The 35-year-old, who had hip resurfacing surgery June 1, will make his debut with the Red Wings against the San Jose Sharks at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; BSDET, NBCSCA).
Kane said Detroit was in the back of his mind throughout the process as he considered where to sign.
“It almost felt like it was in my heart,” he said. “When I was thinking about something else, I would always come back to Detroit.”
Asked to elaborate, he pointed out that although he grew up in Buffalo, he moved to Detroit and lived with Verbeek. They went to some Red Wings games at Joe Louis Arena.
“I just thought it was an unbelievable atmosphere,” Kane said.
The Red Wings were still in their “Hockeytown” era then. They won the Stanley Cup in 1997, 1998 and 2002, and the Presidents’ Trophy in 2003-04 for the second time in three seasons.
That team included Chris Chelios, Pavel Datsyuk, Kris Draper, Derian Hatcher, Brett Hull, Niklas Kronwall, Nicklas Lidstrom, Darren McCarty, Kirk Maltby, Mathieu Schneider, Brendan Shanahan, Ray Whitney, Steve Yzerman and Henrik Zetterberg.
Funny, isn’t it? Chelios had come to the Red Wings from the Chicago Blackhawks in a trade March 23, 1999, and made Detroit his new home. Yzerman, the captain then, is the GM today.
Kane got to ride in the car, sit at the kitchen table and pick the brain of Verbeek, who had 1,062 points (522 goals, 540 assists) in 1,424 NHL games from 1982-2002, including 78 points (37 goals, 41 assists) in 135 games for the Red Wings from 1999-2001 after signing with them as an unrestricted free agent Nov. 11, 1999, at age 35.
“He was a quiet kid, real quiet, but he was a kid that loved the big moments,” Verbeek said. “When you see somebody like that, that’s a special player. Some people are afraid of it, and they crumble, and he lived for it. It was like a rush for him. We had a lot of fun pushing him all the time. He was a sponge.”
Kane had 160 points (83 goals, 77 assists) in 70 games for Honeybaked. He played the next two seasons for USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program, which was based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, at the time.
Meanwhile, the Red Wings remained a top team. After a lockout canceled the 2004-05 season, Detroit won the Presidents’ Trophy again in 2005-06.
“I was pretty familiar with the Detroit area,” Kane said. “Always enjoyed it.”
Kane played for London of the Ontario Hockey League in 2006-07, was selected by the Blackhawks with the No. 1 pick in the 2007 NHL Draft and debuted in the NHL in 2007-08.
Early in his NHL career, the Red Wings were a measuring stick. They won the Presidents’ Trophy and the Cup in 2007-08. Kane’s first Stanley Cup Playoff run ended when Chicago lost to Detroit in five games in the 2009 Western Conference Final.
The Blackhawks won the Cup in 2010. Still, when they defeated the Red Wings in the second round in 2013, coming back from a 3-1 deficit to win the series in seven games, it was a big moment. They went on to win the Cup that year and again in 2015.
“[Detroit] was always someone we were looking up to and striving to be, so it felt good to kind of get over that hump in 2013,” Kane said. “It’s an incredible franchise, incredible organization. I think the jersey’s beautiful too. Even though you play against them and hate them there for a while, it’s such a beautiful jersey.”
Kane said Joe Louis Arena was his favorite road rink. The Red Wings played there until 2016-17, when their 25-season playoff streak ended. They haven’t made the playoffs yet at Little Caesars Arena and are hoping a healthy Kane can change that.
What will it be like seeing No. 88 in a Red Wings jersey?
“It’ll be weird,” Verbeek said with a smile. “But any time you can play for an Original Six team, it’s a cool thing.”
In the end, the main reason Kane chose Detroit is that he wants to keep playing, and the Red Wings give him the best chance to succeed and earn another contract. He can reunite with former Chicago teammate Alex DeBrincat and play on the first line and first power play.
But the background began at Verbeek’s house 20 years ago.
“I just always loved the organization and always thought it was a top-notch organization,” Kane said. “When it came around to making the decision, like I said, I always kind of felt like it was in the back of my mind. I always felt, like, if I was thinking about another team, Detroit was that next team popping up.”
