In news out of Belarus today, HC Dinamo Misnk have announced that Evander Kane has agreed to join the team during the lockout, which would see him playing with Tim Stapleton, who also donned Polar Night Blue with the Jets last year.
Tim Campbell of the Winnipeg Free Press caught up with Kane after the signing.
"Nobody wants to not play," Kane said Friday. "I've been off since April: I had the world tournament but I haven't played hockey in a while. "I was kind of getting impatient." The 21-year-old from Vancouver, fresh off his 30-goal and plus-11 season — both team bests for the Winnipeg Jets — told the Free Press that his contract with Dinamo was also not that hastily arranged. "It took a week or two to get that together," said Kane, who leaves today for Europe. "I had to look at the options, a few options, then make my decision."
Kane is one of the biggest Canadian names to make the jump overseas thus far, although not quite as prolific as Rick Nash and Joe Thornton playing in Switzerland.
Dinamo Minsk is hoping to have Kane available for their game against Lokomotiv Yaroslavl on Tuesday, the club of another former Jet: Mark Flood. Certain things like work visas need to be resolved before that can be a reality, but there still seems to be a good chance Kane is in a Dinamo uniform after the weekend.
Kane, of course, is coming off a 30 goal season with the Jets that saw him rewarded with a 6 year, 31.5 million dollar contract this past offseason.
This brings the list of Winnipeg Jets playing in Europe to 8, as Tobias Enstrom will likely not be drawing into the MODO lineup anytime soon. the Jets have 6 players in the KHL, 1 in the DEL and 1 in the Czech Extraliga.
