Should the Capitals pursue Evander Kane?

During the broadcast of the Washington Capitals game last night where they won in thrilling fashion over the Ottawa Senators, a bombshell report from Elliotte Friedman dropped during the second intermission.

“Another team who has at least discussed it and considered [signing Kane] is the Washington Capitals. There’s nothing done. No contact or nothing like that, but they’re another team in addition to the Oilers who have looked into this.”

That’s right folks the Caps are possibly going after Evander Kane, which I think would help the team on the ice but not in the locker room. However the Caps have the culture and the discipline to maybe keep a guy of his nature in check.

But the bad thing here is Kane has some baggage with him off the ice. The 30 year old hasn’t played since last year and has been involved in controversies such as sexual assault allegations, gambling problems and even faking a COVID vaccine passport.

His contract got terminated from the San Jose Sharks earlier this month but even with the history teams were still interested. Among the rumors were the Edmonton Oilers. No matter what happens though is it worth losing fans or seeing fans protest by signing a player of that nature? Where are the morals here?

It wouldn’t cost the Caps a lot of money to sign Kane, as my friend Harrison Brown from NoVa Caps notes. But it would cost them morality points in my opinion. You’ve seen what’s happened in Carolina with the fanbase divided from when the Hurricanes signed Tony DeAngelo over the summer.

Alright I think we’ve talked enough about the dude off the ice so let’s take a dive into his on ice numbers. Last season he had 22 goals and 27 assists for 49 points. In his career he suited up for 769 games and had 264 goals and 242 assists for 506 points. These numbers aren’t too shabby so I can see why the Caps might want to add a player like that to their forwards.

The advanced stats on Natural Stat Trick have Kane with a Corsi For percentage of 49.09 percent, Expected Goals For percentage at 50.64 percent, and a 50.16 percent High Danger Chances For. Again not bad.

Do the Caps do this high risk but high reward or unreward? I don’t know. What I do know is that they need to get better.