Evander Kane opts for surgery over Jets teammates, out 4-6 months

Before he was a healthy scratch on Tuesday against the Vancouver Canucks, Evander Kane was ready to play. As he had played every game from Oct. 30 through Feb. 2, scoring 10 goals and 12 assists on the season in 37 games.

Was he playing through the pain of a shoulder injury? Yes.

Did it require immediate surgery, shutting him down for 4-6 months of rehab?

It’s a question only Kane can answer, according to Winnipeg Jets coach Paul Maurice, who announced that his 23-year-old forward was shutting it down for the season 24 hours after the salacious details of Kane’s benching were made public.

Here's what went down: On Tuesday, Kane showed up to a team meeting wearing in his hometown of Vancouver in a track suit, which was a violation of the team’s dress code. After the meeting, Kane either worked out or went to the trainers’ office, shedding his track suit. According to the Winnipeg Free Press, teammate Dustin Byfuglien threw Kane’s clothes into a cold tub “to send a message to his teammate.”

That prompted Kane to leave the rink. He didn’t travel on the team’s bus to the arena for a pregame meeting. Team officials were unable to get him on the phone for most of the day, and when they did, a half-hour before the game, he told them he would not be playing that night. So he was a healthy scratch. Kane met with team doctors on Thursday, missing practice.

Was the decision to go under the knife made because of that incident?

Said Maurice: "That's a question for Evander.”

It was Maurice’s first time meeting the media after the incident went public, and he put up the blue wall of silence when asked about the situation with Kane and his teammates.

"I'm still not telling you why I made the decision. I've got people in that room, including Evander, to protect in that room,” he said, via Illegal Curve. "There are things that the players handle and there are things that I handle.  This (Kane situation) was one I handled."

Kane can be traded while on injured reserve. We can’t imagine that happening now, although a move at the draft would be feasible.

But this effectively ends Evander Kane’s time with the Winnipeg Jets, which is something a long time coming and frankly too late happening. Please recall last summer when he was asked in a radio interview if he still wanted to play for the Jets:

"Well, I think I'm a Winnipeg Jet right now. And, you know, there's been speculation and rumors the three years since I got there. So, you know, we'll see what happens and we'll carry on as if I'm a Winnipeg Jet,” said Kane.

He had one skate out the door last July.

So while his teammates say he’s a Jet and Maurice laughably says Kane would be welcomed back in the Winnipeg room, it’s over. Finished. Done.

Evander Kane electing to have surgery is Evander Kane quitting on the Jets.

Gary Lawless of the Winnipeg Free Press called it: Kane had the right to do this now, with permission from team doctors, and he ended up making the call. (Even if the “Kane has lost his appetite to do all he can for king and country” bit was a little too Downton Abbey.)

Again: Even without any further knowledge of this locker room chaos, I don’t blame Kane for wanting out. It was a bad fit for years, from the unfair coverage he received from the press to the fact that his name more than any other was circulated in trade rumors (which led to an absurd amount of trade request denials from his camp).

The same folks who applaud a player’s right to demand a trade or block one with his contract will probably demonize Kane as a quitter here, but they’re more similar than you’d think. He’s done with the Jets, they’re about done with him, and he’s opted for surgery to be ready for the next destination.

But because this situation couldn’t be anything but contentious, he decided to shank Jets management and teammates by not allowing them to immediately replace him or improve the team via a deadline trade. ‘Toss my track suit in an ice bath? I’ll throw your playoff odds down the drain …’

It’s a truly bitter end, this one.

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