DETROIT -- Patrick Kane could feel satisfied. He is headed to the Hockey Hall of Fame with three Stanley Cup rings, MVP trophies from the regular season and the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and more.
Yet here he is at 36, skating on a surgically repaired hip, still living up to his nickname: “Showtime.” The forward has 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in his past 12 games for the Detroit Red Wings, who host the Vegas Golden Knights at Little Caesars Arena on Sunday (1 p.m. ET; SCRIPPS, MAX, truTV, TNT, SN1, TVAS). Detroit (31-29-6) is four points out of the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.
“I just think that he loves playing hockey still,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “He comes and he wants to play, and he wants the puck and he wants it to make plays. Does it always go perfect? No. But he can’t wait to get back on the ice again, and that excitement to play remains there in a player that could just say, ‘I’m full. I’ve got my Cups. I’m going to the Hall of Fame.’ He knows that. We all know that. [He could say] ‘I’m secure in my life.’ But the hunger’s still there.”
It has become easy to forget that Kane had hip resurfacing surgery June 1, 2023. He had a hip impingement, grinding bone on bone, so the femoral head was trimmed and capped with metal, while the socket was cleaned out and replaced with a metal shell. No hockey player had ever come back from that and excelled.
After Detroit signed Kane to a one-year contract Nov. 28, 2023, Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman said, “How effective he’s going to be remains to be seen, but based on his health and his testing, I think he has a chance to be very effective.” Kane said his motivation was “the love and passion for the game, still wanting to play.”
Kane had 47 points (20 goals, 27 assists) in 50 games last season and signed another one-year contract with Detroit on June 30. He has 45 points (17 goals, 28 assists) in 55 games this season. Twice, he sat out for a five-game stretch, but each time it was with an upper-body injury, not because of the hip.