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Hawks' Kane on future: ‘It's hard not to think about it'

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The March 3 trade deadline is less than two months away, and Patrick Kane will be one of the biggest potential trade chips on the market. 

With the holidays behind us and the calendar officially flipped to 2023, Kane's representatives and the Blackhawks' management group are expected to meet with each other soon to talk more about what the future holds.

On Tuesday, Kane sat down with NBC Sports Chicago's Pat Boyle for an exclusive 1-on-1 interview — which you can hear on the latest Blackhawks Talk Podcast — and addressed the elephant in the room.

"It's a different year obviously, going into the last year of your contract and different variables about what's going to happen or where you're going to be the rest of your career, different things like that," Kane said. "You think about that stuff, especially when it gets into January here and got a couple months to the trade deadline. We'll see how it all shakes out."

Kane said he talks with his agent Pat Brisson "pretty much every week." They checked in with Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson right before Christmas, but it was to initiate some preliminary discussions and there wasn't much to report.

When the two sides meet next, the goal of the conversations will likely be different.

"Just to kind of hear from where each side is at," Kane said. "I think whether it's about my play now or just about the team, about things that I see with the team that could maybe help, and obviously about maybe what's coming up. I don't think we've got to that point yet but I'm sure we both know it's right around the corner here."

Kane isn't the only one in this position. His longtime teammate Jonathan Toews is going through the same process as well, which adds another layer to the situation.

If one plans to go, does that influence the other to do the same? If one plans to stay, does that mean the other will be inclined to stay as well?

Kane said the two of them don't speak a ton about it, but they do check in with each other here and there to get a feel for what the other is thinking. 

"I think both of us will probably want to hear what the other one is doing and play off that a little bit and kind of see what that is when the time gets closer," Kane said. "But I don't think it will be like a determining factor or what one or the other does.

"We're very fortunate and blessed to play with one team for 15, 16 years, whatever it's been. Not many guys do that. I know that it's a different situation here in Chicago and they kind of want to build up their prospect pool, and they've used that term rebuild. We'll kind of see where we fit into that or if not, so I'm sure that's what those discussions are all about."

As the trade deadline gets closer, the chatter and rumors will only get louder. Kane has done a good job of trying to block out the outside noise to this point, but sometimes it can be challenging to ignore it all. He's human, too.

"It depends, I think every day's different," Kane said. "If it's a game day and you're getting ready for a game and you're on the ice playing, I think it's easy to stay in the moment. If it's a couple days off in between games and you see some different things here or there or someone sends you something, it's like right in front of you, it's hard not to think about it."

The last time his contract expired, Kane really had only himself to think about. Now, he's got a son and is raising a family with his girlfriend Amanda, so he's got other things to consider as he makes a decision about his future.

Kane said he has the full support of Amanda and his family to do whatever he wants, whether it's to stay in Chicago or play elsewhere.

"She's great, too," Kane said. "She's like wherever you go, we're going too, so whatever you want to do, whatever makes you happy, and I think that's always cool to hear. It's not like I'm making the decision to go somewhere because they want to be in warm weather or they want to be somewhere different or they want to stay, it seems like it's up to me this decision, so that's obviously good to hear from her."

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