Why Evander Kane to the Bruins is not a good fit

Evander Kane has had his name bandied about in a lot of trade rumors lately, with even Bob McKenzie weighing in on TSN1050 that the Bruins being in on Kane is "automatic if they thought they were getting a healthy Kane"

However two big things complicate that - Injury and the Salary cap.

Injury:

Kane is currently injured, and was placed on IR retroactive to February second today, which means that he is out until at least the ninth. He has been dealing with a litany of injuries, and they're severe enough for him to to consider season ending surgery. That is a big red flag, because if the Bruins give up assets for him, and then he has the surgery, that is bad asset management. If the Bruins would acquire Kane, it would be to help their playoff push, not for next year.

Salary Cap:

Evander Kane has a 5.25 million dollar cap hit for this year, and three years after that according to The Fourth Period. That would put him tied for fifth on the Bruins in that regard, behind Rask at $7 million, Chara at just under $7 million, Bergeron at $6.5 million, Lucic at $6 million, and tied with Krejci (pre extension) Due to the Bonus overage last year from Jarome Iginla's contract, the Bruins have less than $2.5 million in cap space, and would have to move at least three million in cap this year to make him fit. It would further complicate things because the Bruins would have close to 60 million of a potential 71 million tied up under the cap, still having to sign Torey Krug, Reilly Smith, and Dougie Hamilton, not to mention the fourth line, defenseman, and backup goalie. Unless you move some real dead weight, this isnt happening.

Bonus reason:

The Bruins arent exactly the best organization in terms of dealing with young players who have off ice and "behavioural issues", having traded away both Phil Kessel and Tyler Seguin in recent years.

Although Kane has been playing on Winnipeg's third line, with Chris Thorburn and Adam Lowry, he he has produced like a second liner both in terms of underlying metrics such as Corsi, as well as points per 60. Courtesy of OwnThePuck.com, here is his HERO chart:

Kane is pretty good at hockeying.

Heres Evander Kane compared to Reilly Smith this year and last year, at all situations. Smith is the one on top, and Kane is the one below.

Since coming to Boston, Reilly Smith has out produced Kane, but thats somewhat unfair given Kanes injury (which hes has played through most of this year.) Here is their numbers from the past 4 years:

Evander Kane is a good hockey player, but his current injury status and his cap hit does not make me clamor for the Bruins to trade for him. The Sabres make the most sense in my opinion, as they can sell off the assets they have, have Kane get the surgery he might need, and then have him 100% to play with whatever player they get in the top 5 of the draft.