I have watched him also, on more than one occasion. Someone made a good assessment, he's got a great shot still and when given the space will make plays. He's not effective on the forecheck, he's certainly not back on every backcheck, and his speed looks marginally better at best. And I would concede that just for the sake of healthy debate. He's fresh off that surgery, how will all that hold up?
Asking him to elevate the play of your star players who are in their prime, is asking too much. He's 34 and has as many miles on him as a 37 year old? Sounds fair without me looking up the games and doing the math. Lot of extra post-season games which equals less recovery time. There's a reason he had a major injury, and needed a major surgery. As I mentioned, there was previous examples (as recent as last year with Backstrom) of this not being successful and 'resetting' a player.
My assessment has been consistent with Kane, which I even made in my original reply to you. Most fans have been sold a bad bill of goods, and have fallen for fool's gold. It is a pure example of why you should manage your expectations. As Rangers fans, we all should have had foresight on bringing on a wrong-side-of-30 aging superstar that has lingering injury issues. I wish he had left Chicago at 30, that would have been fun.
He's not a needle moving player and in fact I would argue that he needs more ice time than he can handle physically to get as many points as he needs at this point. To use a current buzzword, he's a PP merchant that needs a very right situation. Again, a point I've made time and time again, use these kids and bring them up. If you wanna target someone from the bargain bin at the deadline that fits our needs better, cool. Otherwise, bring up anyone of these plethora of young hungry kids we have to fill in for injuries until then.
The Kane saga has just been so tiresome. He's cooked (relative to what he was). There's not room for him here.
