Kane wants to get started with the Red Wings after a pain-free offseason and a full training camp

NEW YORK – Patrick Kane is healthy heading into an NHL season for the first time in five years.

He feels the difference physically and mentally every day. Next, the Detroit Red Wings forward has to show the rest of the hockey world what he’s capable of after a full break from practice and a full training camp.

Kane, who turns 36 on Nov. 19, has one assist in Detroit’s first three games. The Red Wings (1-2-0) play the New York Rangers (2-0-1) at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, HULU).

“During training camp there are tough days, they’re tough on the body but no longer tough on the injury,” Kane said before the Red Wings’ 4-1 loss to the Rangers on Monday at Madison Square Garden. “That’s the fun part, not dealing with pain. That’s a big part of my current situation.”

Kane underwent hip surgery on June 1, 2023 and spent the next six months rehabbing before signing a one-year contract with the Red Wings on November 8. He made his debut with them on December 7th.

He played 50 games without pain, scoring 20 goals and providing 27 assists. He re-signed with Detroit on June 30. He trained without pain. He went through training camp and the regular season feeling better than he had in years.

“I guess that was probably the biggest thing that was exciting for me this offseason,” Kane said.

The last time he was pain-free in the offseason was in 2019. The following season, he scored 84 points (33 goals, 51 assists) in 70 games for the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Blackhawks played in the Edmonton bubble in the postseason after the league returned from its COVID-19-related pause, and they won a round for the first time since winning the Stanley Cup in 2015. But that’s when he first started feeling the pain in his right hip.

He continued to believe that he would make it, that he would make it, even if that meant he would no longer be the player he once was with the Blackhawks, one who was named one of the NHL’s 100 best players in 2017 was appointed. He was close, however, with 66 points (15 goals, 51 assists) in 56 games in the 2020-21 season and 92 points (26 goals, 66 assists) in 78 games in the 2021-22 season.

Kane, who was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent, was traded to the New York Rangers on February 28, 2023 and scored six points (one goal, five assists) in a seven-game first round loss to New Jersey. Devil. But he realized he was now a shell of the player he wanted to be when the pain began.

At that point, surgery was his only option to not only maintain his playing career but to walk and live normally for the rest of his life.

This made Kane the third NHL player to undergo and come back from hip surgery. He joined Nicklas Backstrom from the Washington Capitals in 2022 and Ed Jovanovski from the Florida Panthers in 2014.

It extends his career and changes his life.

“There are definitely times where I have to keep an eye on it every day and make sure everything is OK, but it’s not the joint anymore, you can’t really change that,” Kane said. “You can change pain and tightness in the area, but when your joint is so arthritic, all you can do is try as best you can to provide a little relief here and there, whatever it may be. The joint is not “It’s no longer a problem, that’s the biggest thing.”

Instead, Kane’s problem was dealing with the rigors of training camp, dealing with the long sessions on the ice and surviving them as a player entering his 18th NHL season.

“I know we’re joking, but he told me this was his toughest camp in his career,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “As to why he’s the pro and what a Hall of Fame player he is, he said, ‘I needed that.’ I think this is a good example for all our young people.”

Kane said he hadn’t skated like he did in training camp in a long time, even during his 60-plus on-ice sessions after surgery and before he signed with the Red Wings last season.

“You skate, but you don’t skate for that long at that volume and that intensity,” he said. “It’s good to try it out and see where you stand. At this point it is more about mind than matter. I thought it would be good for me. Last year I didn’t have a training camp. You try as hard as you can, but I liked being in the group, being with the team and having a real training camp.”

It was even better for him that he didn’t just jump in. That’s what the last two seasons have felt like for him, first when he was traded to the Rangers and then again last season when he signed with the Red Wings.

Forward Alex DeBrincat, who played with Kane in Chicago from 2017 to 2022, said he could see a difference in his longtime teammate and linemate because of training camp.

“Last year when he signed, he had maybe a week with us before he came in and he looked really good back then, but obviously the summer of training has gotten him more comfortable and able to work on things,” DeBrincat said. “It looks really comfortable and we hope we can make a difference here.”

Kane, DeBrincat and Dylan Larkin, who make up Detroit’s top line, have combined for seven points (four goals, three assists) in the first three games as the Red Wings attempt to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since the season 2015-16.

“He’s looked great so far, but his presence in the locker room means a lot to this team,” said Larkin, the Red Wings captain. “As an American-born player, you grew up with him and idolized him, and he chose to play for us. It was a great fit. He wants more. He wants to be an impact player.”