Sharks’ Boughner on Evander Kane: “There are decisions that need to be made”

SAN JOSE – Evander Kane’s 21-game suspension ends in nine days and right now coach Bob Boughner has no idea how the Sharks are going to handle the situation.

“I wish I had more information. I don’t, and that’s completely honest,” Boughner said after the Sharks’ 4-0 loss to the Washington Capitals on Saturday. “I don’t have any information. You know, there are decisions that need to be made.”

The Sharks for the first few weeks of this season were able to get by without Kane, who was suspended Oct. 18 for violating the NHL and NHLPA’s COVID-19 Protocol by submitting a fake vaccine card.

Kane is eligible to play again on Nov. 30 when the Sharks play in New Jersey, but general manager Doug Wilson has given no indication how he plans to handle Kane’s potential return to the organization.

It’s a conundrum, to say the least.

On one hand, the Sharks could use Kane’s production to fill a glaring need for another bonafide goal-scoring winger in their forward group. On the other hand, Kane appears to be deeply unpopular with the Sharks’ fan base now after he fell out of favor with his teammates last season.

Kane was not around the team at any point during training camp earlier this fall as the NHL opened two new investigations into the 30-year-old forward’s past behavior. One centered around the possible use of a fake COVID-19 vaccination card, and the other involved accusations of physical and sexual abuse raised by his estranged wife in a court filing in September.

The NHL said it could not substantiate the domestic abuse allegations but did find that Kane breached the league’s COVID protocol, slapping him with a quarter-season suspension that cost him roughly $1.68 million of his $7 million salary for this season.

Kane is still owed over $20 million over the final three-plus years of his contract, which is set to expire after the 2024-25 season.

Without Kane, their leading scorer from last season, the Sharks got out to a respectable 7-4-1 start. There was genuine harmony in the locker room as the Sharks found success playing to a certain meat-and-potatoes identity. Everybody was on the same page.

The Sharks still appear to be a unified team, but their lack of scoring at even strength and on the power play right now is impossible to ignore.

With Saturday’s shutout, the Sharks have now scored just eight goals in their last five games, including just one on the power play. The Sharks beat the Minnesota Wild 4-1 last Tuesday but otherwise have been held to an average of one goal per game.

“Offensively, we’ve got to be hungry around the net. We’ve got to find a way to score goals,” Sharks captain Logan Couture said. “(One goal) in the last two games and we really didn’t score that many on the road trip. So, we’ve got to find a way to score more goals.”

Perhaps the Sharks’ offensive struggles right now shouldn’t come as a huge surprise.

It always felt like they were at least one scoring winger short of being a genuine contender in the Pacific Division.

Rookie William Eklund was in a top-six forward role for nine of the Sharks’ first 10 games of the season. But the Sharks, acting in what they felt was the best long-term interest of their top prospect, reassigned Eklund, 19, to Djurgarden of the Swedish Hockey League on Nov. 5.

The move was understandable, but it left a significant hole in the Sharks’ top-six forward group, and the Sharks, it seems, do not have another winger who can fit in seamlessly with Tomas Hertl and Alexander Barabanov like Kane did last season.

Nick Bonino does not have a point in 17 games, and other forwards like Andrew Cogliano, Matt Nieto, and Jasper Weatherby have gone without a point in four straight games.

Kevin Labanc, before he served a one-game suspension Saturday, had gone without a point in three games since he came out of the NHL’s COVID Protocol. Rudolfs Balcers had two assists in his last six games.

The Sharks now rank 25th in the NHL at 2.59 goals per game. The Sharks’ four-game homestand continues this week with games against Carolina on Monday, Ottawa on Wednesday, and Toronto on Friday.

It could spiral downward real quick if the Sharks can’t find a way to bury a few more of their chances.

“Good teams, they’re getting some production from their bottom six, and it’s been a while since we’ve got that,” Boughner said. “That’s got to be something that we figure out because we can’t depend on the same couple of guys every night.”

The Sharks are now 2-4-1 since Eklund was sent back to Sweden. Adding an exceptional talent like Kane to the lineup would certainly slot a lot of players into their proper positions.

One wonders if Wilson will publicly articulate in the coming days his plan for Kane. Pay him to stay home? Put him on waivers? Put him on a conditioning assignment?

Just like Boughner said, there are decisions that need to be made.