Homecoming: With Patrick Kane, Blackhawks combine past and future into a tantalizing present

It was in the wrong spot, across the room and a few stalls off center, hanging next to 18-year-old Mason West as the prospect fiddled with the laces on his skates. It was the wrong time of year, the dead of summer, months since the last game and months till the next one. And it was definitely the wrong logo — the winged wheel of the hated Detroit Red Wings emblazoned on the chest.

But Patrick Kane’s No. 88 jersey didn’t feel out of place in the locker room at the Blackhawks Ice Center earlier this month. Never has. Kane lives in Chicago. Skates in Chicago. Is Chicago. He never really left Chicago. And he certainly never left the heart of Chicagoans.

That jersey — the right one, the real one, the Blackhawks one — still speckles the United Center on a nightly basis, mixing in with all the 98s in the crowd for every home game. Now, those jerseys will come together on the ice, on the top line, 88 and 98, Patrick Kane and Connor Bedard, the glorious past and the promising future joining to create a tantalizing present.

Does the signing of Kane to a two-year contract worth $8 million a season (8-8, get it?) with a full no-movement clause make the Blackhawks a contender this season? Of course not. There’s still a ton of development to do, there are still a ton of holes to fill. Does the signing of Kane make the Blackhawks a heck of a lot more interesting this season? Of course.

But this isn’t just about ticket sales and CHSN subscriptions. This isn’t just some novelty signing, a nostalgia play, a bit of fan service, a farewell tour. At least, not entirely. Kane still has game. At 37, he’s not as fast or as strong as he was before hip-resurfacing surgery — but his game was never predicated on speed or physicality. He’s not terribly interested in playing defense at this stage of his career — but he was never exactly a 200-foot player to begin with. As he enters his 20th NHL season, Kane’s hands are as soft as ever, his processing speed is as high as ever, and his creativity is as singular as ever.

Kane had 20 goals in 50 games in his first season with the Red Wings. He had 59 points in 72 games in 2024-25. And he had 57 points in 67 games last season. He won’t post 110 points as he did in 2018-19; he won’t win the Hart Trophy as he did in 2015-16; he won’t lead the Blackhawks to three championships as he did from 2010 to 2015. But he can still play.

Most importantly, he can play alongside Bedard.

For the first time in his NHL career, Bedard has a bona fide top-line winger — someone who can keep up with his own soft hands, his own high processing speed, his own creativity. Bedard’s agent, Don Meehan, made a point this week to say that Bedard bristles at any criticism of his teammates — a sign of just how far he’s come as a leader and inevitable captain — but the fact is, the Blackhawks’ 21-year-old superstar has been saddled with unworthy linemates for all three of his NHL seasons.

As a rookie, he was largely joined at the hip with Philipp Kurashev, now out of the league. As a sophomore, it was Ryan Donato, whom Jeff Blashill now views as exclusively a bottom-sixer. This past season, it was Ryan Greene, a rookie who maxes out as a third-liner in projections, and André Burakovsky, who fell off a cliff in the second half of the season. Year after year, the Blackhawks failed to put Bedard in a position to succeed.

Yet Bedard turned Kurashev into a 54-point player. He turned Donato into a 31-goal player. He turned Greene into a capable, reliable, productive player.

Imagine what he can do with Kane once he returns from shoulder surgery, likely in mid-November — even this Kane, at this stage of his career.

A top line of Bedard with Kane and rookie Roman Kantserov, the youngest player to lead the KHL in goals since Kirill Kaprizov, will be the most exciting thing to happen to Blackhawks hockey since Kane scored the game-winning goal in overtime at the United Center — for the rival Red Wings on Feb. 25, 2024. That’s how bleak it’s been during this rebuild.

And that’s what matters most here: Bedard. It’s always about Bedard, who just signed a five-year, $75-million contract. Kane is coming home to be a supporting actor, not the leading man. After running this town for 16 seasons, the most electrifying athlete to hit Chicago since Michael Jordan, Kane will be a complementary piece, a role he thrived in and embraced in Detroit for three seasons. Bedard is the star attraction now. Kane is just here to help. And he can definitely help.

“You talk about the legacy aspect of it, but as a team, it would make us a way better team,” Bedard said on Monday, as the possibility of Kane returning became more and more likely. “He’s still an amazing player.”

Is there a tiny whiff of desperation in this signing by Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson? Perhaps. After all, this is the same GM who dealt Kane to the Rangers in 2023 to help the Blackhawks get bad enough to draft Bedard in the first place. He then repeatedly suggested it was a clean break, one he wouldn’t go back on. Davidson wanted Bedard and the next generation of Blackhawks to come into their own and form their own leadership group without the burden of history, without the shadow of the Cup teams hanging over them, without the legends of yesteryear sucking up all the oxygen in the locker room.

But that was three years ago. And it’s about time the front office started showing some urgency, isn’t it? After four straight seasons finishing in the bottom two of the NHL standings, maybe there’s finally a bit of pressure building up in the Blackhawks front office — even with owner Danny Wirtz handing his GM a contract extension just this past season. No team had ever successfully built a championship roster exclusively through the draft, and Davidson failed to land Jake Guentzel a couple years ago, and he failed to land Jason Robertson this summer. Fans were getting understandably antsy, nine years removed from the team’s last true playoff appearance, 11 years removed from their last series victory, the 2015 Stanley Cup Final. Davidson had to do something.

Sending the No. 4 pick to Buffalo to acquire Bowen Byram was the biggest swing Davidson has taken since becoming GM. That’s the high-risk, high-reward move, the one that very well might end up defining his tenure in Chicago, one way or the other. Signing Kane is a much more modest swing — the cap hit for the next two seasons is almost irrelevant with the Blackhawks’ current roster. It’s not even low-risk, high-reward. It’s no-risk, high-reward. If Kane, who always believed he could play into his 40s, can hang with Bedard, it’ll be a beautiful partnership that’ll create some beautiful hockey, helping Bedard continue his ascent into megastardom. And if Kane deteriorates in his late-30s, as so many do, well, people will still pay to see him. Chicago can’t lose.

“We’d all obviously be so excited to have (not only) a player like that, but also a guy like that,” Bedard said. “I can’t imagine his first game back at the (United Center), the reaction he’d get and how much juice that would bring not only to our team but our fans, as well.”

That was what Kane did for 16 seasons — he brought the juice. That’s Bedard’s job now. Kane’s spin-o-ramas have been replaced by Bedard’s drag-and-drive wrist shots. Kane’s backhanders have been replaced by Bedard’s one-timers. Kane’s sick saucer passes from the half-wall have been replaced by, well, Bedard’s sick passes from the half-wall. This is Bedard’s team, Bedard’s franchise. Kane doesn’t have to carry that burden anymore. Can’t, really. But Bedard can. And Kane can help.

As Bedard enters his fourth season, fully in command of himself and his locker room, he no longer needs a mentor, a guide, someone who’s experienced the ceaseless attention and crushing pressure that comes with being a big star in a big city. He needs a winger. Now he’s got one.

That it’s arguably the greatest player in franchise history? Just a bonus.

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