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Evander Kane
Evander Kane 2009
Kane with the Vancouver Giants during the 2009 playoffs.
Position Centre/Left Wing
Shoots Left
Height
Weight
6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
176 lb (80 kg)
NHL Team Atlanta Thrashers
Born (1991-08-02)August 2, 1991,
Vancouver, BC, CAN
NHL Draft 4th overall, 2009
Atlanta Thrashers
Pro Career 2009 – present


Evander Kane (born August 2, 1991) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre with the Atlanta Thrashers of the National Hockey League (NHL). Drafted fourth overall in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft by the Thrashers, he played major junior hockey with the Vancouver Giants of the Western Hockey League (WHL). During his major junior career, he has won a Memorial Cup with the Giants in 2007, playing in a limited role with the club as a fifteen-year-old. After finishing as runner-up for the Jim Piggott Memorial Trophy as WHL rookie of the year in 2007–08, he set the Giants' franchise record for single-season goals in his second WHL season and was named to the WHL West First All-Star Team, in addition to winning a gold medal with Team Canada at the 2009 World Junior Championships.

Early life

Kane was born on August 2, 1991, to Perry and Sheri Kane, who named him after boxer Evander Holyfield. Coming from an athletic lineage, his father, Perry, was an amateur boxer and also a hockey player, having played junior hockey in East Preston, Nova Scotia with the Cole Harbour Colts and college hockey at St. Francis Xavier University, while his mother, Sheri, was a professional volleyball player. His uncle, Leonard, is also a member of the Canadian Ball Hockey Hall of Fame.

At fourteen-years-old, Kane recorded 140 points in 66 games with the bantam North Shore Winter Club, followed by a 22-goal, 54-point campaign to finish fourth in league scoring with the Greater Vancouver Canadians of the BC Hockey Major Midget League (BCHMML). Kane also played minor hockey with the Vancouver Thunderbirds, prior to bantam and midget.

Playing career

File:Evander Kane.jpg

Kane during the 2007–08 season.

Evander Kane and Casey Pierro-Zabotel

Kane (9) and Giants linemate Casey Pierro-Zabotel in 2008.

Kane was drafted 19th overall in the 2006 WHL Bantam Draft by the Vancouver Giants and immediately played 8 games for the Giants in the 2006–07 season. He received his first WHL call-up for a game against the Seattle Thunderbirds on December 13, 2006, due to other Giants players international commitments in the 2007 World Junior Championships. Kane scored his first WHL goal, a game-tying marker, on March 25, 2007, the last game of the regular season. He also suited up for 5 WHL post-season games, being originally called up for the playoffs after Giants forward Tim Kraus was suspended for game three of the opening round. He later appeared in 2 Memorial Cup games, tallying an assist, as part of the Giants' 2007 Memorial Cup championship. Kane's gritty play (he accumulated 150 penalty minutes in 30 games during midget) earned him an early comparison to Darcy Tucker from Giants head coach Don Hay, who had coached Tucker as a junior with the Kamloops Blazers.

Set to begin his rookie campaign with the Giants the following season, Kane experienced a minor setback as he was forced to miss the start of training camp with a case of mononucleosis. He nevertheless recovered and joined the Giants full-time to tally 24 goals – third in team scoring – and 41 points in his first WHL season. Finishing tenth in rookie scoring, he was nominated for the Jim Piggott Memorial Trophy as league rookie of the year, which was awarded to Brayden Schenn of the Brandon Wheat Kings.

Kane emerged with an impressive start to the 2008–09 season, registering at least a point in each of his first 22 games. After recording his first WHL hat-trick on October 10, 2008, against the Kelowna Rockets, he was named WHL Player of the Week on October 12, succeeding linemate Casey Pierro-Zabotel who had been chosen the previous week. Shortly thereafter, the WHL selected Kane to represent the league at the 2008 ADT Canada-Russia Challenge. However, due to a bruised heel suffered on November 15 in a game against the Kelowna Rockets, Kane was not able to compete for Team WHL. Kane recovered and earned a spot as an injury replacement at the 2009 World Junior Championships with Team Canada. Upon returning with a gold medal, Kane was named player of the week for the second time in the season on January 12, 2009, after scoring 6 points in 2 games immediately following the World Juniors. Later that month, he participated in the 2009 CHL Top Prospects Game as captain for Team Cherry. Nearing the end of the regular season, Kane broke the Giants' single-season goals record with his 44th goal of the season as part of a 2-goal effort on March 4 against the Tri-City Americans. The goal surpassed Adam Courchaine's 43-goal mark recorded in 2002–03.

He finished his second WHL season with 48 goals to go with 96 points, fourth in league scoring. Second in team scoring to Pierro-Zabotel's 115 points, the linemates finished one-two in all-time Giants' single-season scoring as Pierro-Zabotel and Kane both shattered Gilbert Brulé's previous 87-point mark. He received WHL West First Team All-Star honours along with teammates Pierro-Zabotel and Jonathon Blum. In the subsequent 2009 playoffs, after the Giants swept the Prince George Cougars in the first round, Kane scored a double-overtime winner to force a seventh game in the second round against the Spokane Chiefs. Despite eliminating the Chiefs in the seventh game, the Giants were then defeated by the Kelowna Rockets in six games in the semi-finals. In 17 post-season games, Kane accumulated 15 points.

Preliminary rankings by NHL Central Scouting Services (CSS) listed Kane as second among WHL skaters, behind Spokane Chiefs defenceman Jared Cowen for the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. International Scouting Services (ISS) ranked Kane at eighth overall among all draft-eligible skaters. Following Kane's performance at the 2009 World Junior Championships, he rose to third overall among North American skaters, behind John Tavares and Matt Duchene, and first in the WHL in the NHL CSS's midseason and final rankings. Accordingly, Kane was selected by the NHL CSS as the WHL's nominee for the CHL Top Draft Prospect Award (the award was given to Tavares, the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) nominee). The ISS listed Kane fifth overall in their April rankings. After Tavares, Victor Hedman and Duchene were taken with the top three picks in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, Kane was selected fourth overall by the Atlanta Thrashers. He became the highest drafted Vancouver-born-and-raised player since Paul Kariya was taken fourth overall in 1993 (Barry Beck was the highest at second overall in 1977) and the highest drafted Vancouver Giants player in the history of the franchise (surpassing Gilbert Brulé, who was drafted sixth overall in 2005). Less than a month later, the Thrashers signed Kane to an entry-level contract on July 20, 2009.

He recorded his first career NHL point on October 3rd, 2009, an assist on a goal by Rich Peverley against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

International play

Medal record
Competitor for Flag of Canada Canada
Ice hockey
World Junior Championships
Gold 2009 Ottawa
Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament
Gold 2008 Pardubice

Coming off his rookie season of major junior hockey, Kane competed in the 2008 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, capturing gold with Canada's under-18 team. He totalled 4 points in 4 games, including an assist in the 6–3 gold medal game win against Russia. Later that year, Kane was invited to Team Canada's selection camp for the 2009 World Junior Championships along with teammate Tyson Sexsmith. Although he was not initially named to the final roster, a knee injury to Dana Tyrell in tournament exhibition play led to his eventual selection to the team. As the youngest player on the team, Kane contributed 6 points in 6 games, helping Canada to a fifth straight gold medal with a 5–1 victory over Sweden in the final.

Awards

Records

Career statistics

    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
2005–06 North Shore Winter Club Bantam 66 140
2006–07 Greater Vancouver Canadians BCMML 30 22 32 54 150
2006–07 Vancouver Giants WHL 8 1 0 1 11 5 0 0 0 0
2007–08 Vancouver Giants WHL 65 24 17 41 66 10 1 2 3 8
2008–09 Vancouver Giants WHL 61 48 48 96 89 17 7 8 15 45
WHL totals 134 73 65 138 166 32 8 10 18 53

International

Year Team Event   GP G A Pts PIM
2008 Canada U18 4 1 3 4 6
2009 Canada WJC 6 2 4 6 2
Junior int'l totals 10 3 7 10 8


External links

Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Daultan Leveille
Atlanta Thrashers first round draft pick
2009
Succeeded by
TBD


This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Evander Kane. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).


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