Sharks’ Kane expects to be cleared in gambling probe, downplays rifts with teammates

San Jose Sharks forward Evander Kane again flatly denied that he wagered on NHL games – including his own — and expects to be cleared of any wrongdoing in the league’s ongoing investigation.

In an interview with ESPN that aired Thursday, Kane called the allegations that he gambled on NHL games “incredibly false.”

The NHL launched an investigation almost immediately after Kane’s estranged wife, Anna, accused him on social media of gambling on league games and “throwing games to win money” because of arrangements he made with bookies.

In July 31 Instagram Story posts, Anna Kane asked: “How does the NHL let a compulsive gambling addict still play when he’s obviously throwing games to win money? Hmm maybe someone needs to address this.”

“Can someone ask (Commissioner) Gary Bettman how they can let a player gamble on his own games? Bet and win with bookies on his own games?”

Kane said he “definitely” had a problem with gambling at “certain points,” including in 2018 when gambled in a Las Vegas casino the night before a Sharks playoff game against the Vegas Golden Knights. But he said he never gambled on NHL games, intentionally tried to lose a game, or alter the way he played because of a bet he or anyone else had made.

“Obviously, incredibly false,” Evander Kane said. “It’s unfortunate that that transpired. It’s unfortunate that those allegations, false allegations, were made.

“Obviously, when they happened, I understood the magnitude of them immediately, not knowing what was going to happen next, but confident because I know that’s not true. I knew none of what she was saying was true, and I was very confident, comfortable with where I was, knowing that I was going to be exonerated and I’m going to be exonerated of allegations.”

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told Sportsnet on Thursday morning that he expects the league’s investigation into Kane to be completed before the start of the Sharks’ training camp next week.

In 2019, The Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas sued Kane in regard to $500,000 in unpaid gambling debts. Court documents stated that Kane was extended eight credits of amounts between $20,000 and $100,000 on or about April 15. The Sharks played the Golden Knights in Game 3 of that series on April 14 and Game 4 on April 16.

The suit was dropped in April of last year.

“I gambled the night before a playoff game,” Kane said. “(I) wasn’t supposed to be doing it. Did it and obviously didn’t do very well.”

In January of this year, Kane filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy listing assets totaling just over $10.2 million and his liabilities at over $26.8 million. According to the petition, he lost $1.5 million due to gambling “at casino and via bookie (sports betting).”

Kane said in the ESPN interview that he’s no longer gambling, adding that he had sought help for his addiction. His gambling issue was something that the Sharks were helping him with, general manager Doug Wilson said earlier this year.

“It’s like a drinking problem or a drug problem: sometimes you can’t control your actions,” Kane said. “I think probably the worst thing that ever happened to me was winning big because you think you can do it again. When you’re an athlete, the competitive juices are flowing, and then when you lose, it bothers you and you want to go back and try to … anyways, you just keep digging deeper.

“But at the end of the day, it’s something that I went through and I’m looking forward to moving on from it.”

But in one of her Instagram posts earlier this summer, Anna Kane suggested that Kane’s gambling issues were ongoing, adding that “he wants to be able to gamble and live freely.

“Embarrassed in every way that things are public and I hope one day you realize that your GAMBLING is the problem. Not an ex-wife or anyone else.”

A report earlier this summer by The Athletic said several Sharks players had become fed up with Kane over the course of last season due to his overall lax attitude toward team rules, including being late for practices and games and the players’ dress code.

Kane downplayed the reported rifts between himself and his Sharks teammates, saying he became a lightning rod for criticism because of the team’s on-ice struggles. Some players reportedly told Wilson that they no longer want Kane on the team.

“I think it’s easy to point the finger at me,” Kane said. “I think it’s easy to try to make me the scapegoat because of some of my personal issues that are playing out in the public and point to that.

“I think it’s an easy cop-out. At the same time, I don’t necessarily know or believe that that’s true. So, when it comes to the media, I really take it with a grain of salt.”

Kane and former Sharks associate coach Rocky Thompson, according to the report, also nearly came to blows over a disagreement during a power-play meeting, and the perception among some players was that Kane could act without the worry of discipline from Wilson or coach Bob Boughner.

Kane led the Sharks last season with 49 points in 56 games.

Kane wasn’t asked about the reported incident with Thompson or any other specific run-ins with teammates. Asked, though, what he wanted people to know about him, Kane said, “When you’re an athlete in a sport like I am … I’m in a white sport. I’m a black player. I have a big personality that maybe rubs people the wrong way, but it’s not meant to.

“When it comes to what people don’t know, I think, unfortunately, a lot of the issues I’ve had or the allegations that have been made about me are just completely not true. I’m not looking for people to feel sorry for me, that’s the last thing I need. I’m not looking for people to feel bad for me. I’m just asking to be treated fairly and judged accordingly.”

Whether some Sharks players and Kane can get past whatever tensions still exist is unclear. The team begins training camp in the middle of next week and if the NHL clears Kane, everybody will be back in the same environment again soon.

Kane had four years left on the seven-year, $49 million contract he signed with the Sharks in May 2018. His deal contains a modified no-trade clause in which he submits a list of three teams he can be traded to. So far, Kane said, he has not been asked by Sharks management for that list.

“I’m not going to sit here and pretend like there haven’t been things that come up, unfortunately, more than I would have liked. Some of it’s been public,” Kane said. “At the same time, it’s again it’s about how you deal with it. I can sit here and feel sorry for myself. I could sit here and buy into the outside noise, and I’m choosing not to do that and focus on what I can control. And for me, so far, that’s proven to be successful.”