Patrick Kane underwent hip resurfacing surgery Thursday and is expected to miss four to six months.
Agent Pat Brisson confirmed Kane’s operation in a text message to The Associated Press. The extended absence appears to rule out Kane for an NHL training camp but means he may be able to return early in the regular season.
Kane, 34, has been dealing with a nagging hip injury that hampered him over the past year with the Chicago Blackhawks and then down the stretch and in the playoffs with the New York Rangers.
Brisson expects Kane to make a full recovery. It was not immediately clear how the surgery impacts Kane’s impending free agency, though Brisson said they’d consider options if the prolific winger does not have a contract on July 1.
The priority, Brisson said, is that the surgery was successful. He told Sportsnet, which first reported the operation, that Kane wants to keep playing for a long time.
Kane might get that chance if the surgery allows him to return to his previous form. Second only to Mike Modano in scoring among U.S.-born players with 1,237 points, Kane was one of the centerpieces of Chicago’s Stanley Cup-winning teams in 2010, ’13 and ’15 and won the Hart Trophy as league MVP in 2016.
As recently as the 2021-22 season, Kane was more than a point-a-game player even amid the Blackhawks’ struggles, putting up 26 goals and 66 assists in 78 games.
Kane had six points on a goal and five assists in New York’s seven-game first-round series loss to New Jersey after the Rangers acquired him before the trade deadline.
The Buffalo, New York, native joins Washington’s Nicklas Backstrom and Carl Hagelin as players to have the invasive hip surgery over the past year. It involves dislocating the upper end of the thighbone, trimming it, capping it and removing cartilage before putting it back in place.
Backstrom, who also was seeking to fix a lingering hip ailment, played seven months after the surgery and finished the season with 21 points in 39 games. Before Backstrom, the only NHL player to come back from hip resurfacing surgery was Ed Jovanovski, who got into 37 more games before calling it a career.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.