On Saturday night, Evander Kane dressed in an AHL game for the first time in his career. This was because he had not played a contest for seven months and had just completed a 21-game suspension for showing a fake COVID-19 vaccine card at training camp. This stint with the San Jose Barracudas is the Sharks’ way of getting Kane back into game shape to either reinsert him into the lineup or facilitate a trade elsewhere.

In his first game of the 2021-22 season, six scouts went down to track that contest that saw the Barracudas face the Abbotsford Canucks. One of the scouts, as reported by Curtis Pashelka of Mercury News, was from the Leafs.

While it isn’t implied in the tweet, there is a possibility that the Leafs sent someone to the game to check on Kane, which could mean that there is some interest in the player. I think that the Leafs should not pursue him because it is not worth it, and it is not just due to the baggage that would come in bringing him into the locker room.

You cannot say that Kane is not a talented hockey player because he has always been a productive power-forward since entering the league with the Atlanta Thrashers in 2009. He has scored 20 goals or more in a season seven times, has been gifted with a great shot, has recently added a sandpaper play style to his arsenal, and has seen his production increase ten-fold since joining the Sharks at the 2018 trade deadline. This past year saw him finish atop the Sharks in scoring despite the team being 14 points out of a playoff spot.