Patrick Kane and Willson Contreras are two elite players in their respective sports and fan favorites in Chicago, where they’ve spent their entire careers.
Both know what it’s like to play on a championship team and have recently experienced the flip side, toiling for two of the worst teams in their leagues.
The Hall of Fame-bound forward from Buffalo, N.Y., and the All-Star catcher from Venezuela might have little in common, but now both Kane and Contreras are looking at the possibility their stays in Chicago could soon be over.
The Cubs have failed to come to an agreement on an extension with Contreras, who is expected to be dealt before the Aug. 2 trade deadline. It’s a story that has been talked about all season, and the clock is ticking toward the deadline.
Kane has one season remaining on the eight-year deal he signed with the Blackhawks on the same day as teammate Jonathan Toews in 2014. But with the Hawks in full teardown mode and sidekick Alex DeBrincat having been dumped on draft day for a first-round pick, it makes little sense for Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson to keep such a valuable trade asset as he starts the rebuild.
Nothing is written in stone, and maybe one or both will stick around. But Cubs and Hawks fans are braced for the worst, knowing the way of the world and the lengthy process of rebuilding a team.
Athletes come and go, a fact of life you learn to deal with from a young age after your favorite player suddenly leaves via trade or free agency. Maybe you cry or curse or declare you’ll find a new team. But eventually you get over it.
The jersey your parents bought with the player’s name and number gets folded up neatly and put in a closet. Years later, when you’ve grown up and learned to accept the harsh business of professional sports, you look at that old jersey and fondly remember how much you cared about someone you never really knew.
It’s the cycle of life for every sports fan. From Bobby Hull to Javier Báez, you learn nothing lasts forever and no one is irreplaceable.
Contreras has handled his situation as well as can be expected, saying all the right things about his love for the organization and the support of Cubs fans. After watching the sell-off of Báez, Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant last summer, he knows how this all works.
“I would love nothing more than play for the Chicago Cubs the rest of my life,” Contreras said Friday in Los Angeles. “Obviously those kind of things are out of my control, but I’m really excited and proud and humbled to be a Chicago Cub.”
Wishful thinking. In a year or two he’ll no doubt return to Wrigley Field to a standing ovation. The Cubs will show Contreras’ highlights on the video boards, and perhaps team President Jed Hoyer will present him with an innings window — his No. 40 — from the old center-field scoreboard.
The “homecoming” of the former player has become a cliché in sports, as we recently witnessed in Atlanta with Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Freddie Freeman ’s tearful return. The Hawks did likewise this season with Duncan Keith’s return as an Edmonton Oiler.
We haven’t heard what Kane thinks about the Hawks’ full-scale surrender. His agent told TSN analyst Pierre LeBrun they were not “going to make any decisions or comments at this point,” which makes sense. Kane holds the cards with a no-movement clause, so why show them now?
Twitter went crazy over the weekend speculating over a possible trade to the New York Rangers, which would bring Kane closer to his native Buffalo while giving him a chance to win another Stanley Cup. That would be a serendipitous scenario, much like the road former Hawks great Steve Larmer took by winning his first and only Stanley Cup with the 1994 Rangers. Larmer was traded early in 1993-94 after 13 seasons in Chicago.
“From not knowing what was going to happen to me to winning the Stanley Cup, it’s been an incredible journey,” he told me that night after hoisting the Cup in Madison Square Garden.
Most of us envisioned Kane and Toews retiring as Blackhawks. Perhaps that’s still a possibility, but it now seems like a long shot for Kane. While he and Toews are in the same boat, Kane is much more valuable than his longtime teammate, who was held to career lows in goals (12) and points (37) last season after sitting out 2020-21 with a medical issue.
Before their arrival, the Hawks were 29th in NHL attendance at less than 13,000 per game. But they led the team to three Cups and turned the franchise from a laughingstock into a success story under billionaire owner Rocky Wirtz.
Davidson told reporters on draft day that he would like Kane and Toews around to “set the example for younger players coming in.” That’s a nice sentiment but out of touch with reality. If you’re trying to lose — and that’s obviously the game plan — you might try to at least deal Kane to get some good young prospects.
While Kane is eligible to sign an extension July 13, that seems unlikely at this point. Whether he wants to stay and lose for the only organization he has known will be up to him.
Maybe he values playing for only one team in his NHL career. Or perhaps, like Larmer, he values winning over everything else.
Either way, Kane and Contreras have provided Chicago with moments that never will be forgotten, much like Keith, Báez and many other local legends.
No one is guaranteed a Hollywood ending, no matter how much joy they brought us.
It’s just the way of the world.
