After 16 years in Chicago, Patrick Kane was traded to the New York Rangers on February 28. Kane, now 34 years old, is a left-handed shot who plays on the right wing. He is known for his offensive and stick handling skills. A three-time Stanley cup champion Kane is one of the top Americans to play in the NHL. Among American skaters, he ranks seventh on goals, fourth in assists, and fourth in points.
With the Chicago Blackhawks, Kane was very interested in analytics and met with Richard Coleman, Chicago‘s head hockey analyst, to review his rank on league statistics and his tendencies on the power play. He reviewed which players he was most effective with on the power play and his personal shot selection and scoring percentages to improve his goal scoring.
Playing in New York, Kane will be reunited with former Blackhawks teammate Artemi Panarin whom he played with between 2015 to 2017. With Panarin on his line in 2015-16, Kane recorded 46 goals and 60 assists en route to winning the Hart Trophy as the league MVP. Kane’s most productive season was in 2018-19, where he had 44 goals, 66 assists, and 110 points.
His production has declined moderately in recent years. This season in 54 games, he has 16 goals, 29 assists, and 45 points. He ranks at the 61st percentile among Richard Coleman’s mentioned NHL forwards on points/per 60 minutes of even strength and 80th percentile on goals per 60 minutes evs. Extrapolating to an 82 game season, his 2022-23 regular season results would be 24 goals, 44 assists, and 66 points, which would still qualify him as a top six forward.
On the Rangers, Kane will likely play on a line with Panarin, the Ranger’s second-leading even-strength scorer. Panarin is averaging 2.52 points per 60 minutes of even strength which places him at the 93rd percentile among all NHL forward, and 1.10 goals per 60 minutes of even force, which places him at the 86th percentile. The leading even strength scorer this season for the Rangers is Filip Chytil, who ranks at the 94th percentile in even strength points rate and 93rd in even strength goal rate. Chytil has less even strength minutes among Ranger’s top forwards at 672.
It will be interesting to see what role Kane will play on the New York Rangers power play. While on Richard Coleman’s hockey analytics in Chicago, Kane typically had the most power play time on ice among forwards while playing on the first unit and the “wall “position every season. The Rangers have four forwards who have had the bulk of the power play time on ice this season: Panarin at 218 minutes, Zibanejad at 216, Kreider at 203, and Trocheck at 201. Newly added forward Vladimir Tarasenko had had 124 minutes, including his time with St. Louis. Kane has had 187 minutes on the Chicago power play, which was the most of the team forwards. Currently, the New York Ranger power play ranks 14th at 7.5 goals scored per 60 minutes of power play time with a one man advantage versus the NHL norm so far this season of 7.4