Kane Addresses Oilers Media, Sharks React

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Evander Kane met with the media in Edmonton Friday morning and shared a bit more on how he left things in San Jose.

Kane signed yesterday with the Oilers after the Sharks terminated his contract three weeks ago. The NHLPA has filed a grievance on Kane’s behalf.

“I understand the narrative, and it’s easy to look at me just because the storylines have always been that I’ve been the disruptive one or whatnot,” Kane said. “To say that everybody in the locker room, I didn’t get along with, would be incredibly false. It’s less than a handful of guys, but it goes both ways.”

He went on to echo the sentiment he shared in Part One of his two-part interview with TSN’s Kayla Grey, which was released yesterday: “When there’s leaks coming from the dressing room in the media, I wouldn’t necessarily say that’s a good act of leadership or being a productive teammate, and they definitely didn’t come from me.”

Evander Kane was referring to the leak of the near-fight between he and Rocky Thompson over the summer. It’s Kane’s belief that because the conflict occurred in a power play meeting, that there were a limited number of guys who could have shared the story.

“Just heard about it after from some guys,” Logan Couture said, noting that he missed games at the end of the season.

Both Couture and Tomas Hertl denied being involved with that meeting. Brent Burns had no comment on Kane’s story.

Bob Boughner expanded: “I wasn’t in that meeting. I was not really made aware of it for some time later, and discussions and arguments or disagreements between players and coaches [happen] all the time within the four walls of our dressing room.

“If it was a real serious situation, I think that I would have found out a lot earlier than that and obviously would have addressed it, but I don’t think it was anything drastic, it was a disagreement and an argument kind of thing.

“No one complained about it, wasn’t an issue. I think some guys probably would have thought it was more of a light-hearted kind of a joking situation. So I think it’s taken a little out of context.”

Meanwhile, Evander Kane remained steadfast that the narrative regarding his person has been mostly false while carefully avoiding any specific mention of what the reports have said.

When asked if he took any responsibility for how things ended in San Jose, Kane responded, “There’s certain things that have happened, the majority of them outside of hockey, that have obviously been well-documented whether they’re accurate or inaccurate. For me, like I said, I take responsibility for things that I’ve done wrong but I’m definitely not going to take responsibility for things I haven’t done.”

Among his alleged wrongdoings with the San Jose Sharks included, but isn’t limited to, submitting a fake vaccination card, being consistently late to practices, not adhering to team dress code, and a gambling problem that helped lead him to bankruptcy and got the Sharks organization sued.

“I’m happy it’s all over,” Kane told the local media, “and I’m happy to be here in Edmonton.”

“Evander’s gone his own way and we’ve gone our own way,” Boughner told us. “I wish him nothing but the best.”