Over the last few days there have been allegations against San Jose Sharks forward Evander Kane that he gambled on NHL games including his own. The wildest thing about these allegations is that they are being made by a person who is pretty close to Kane…His Wife.
Kane has a history of gambling over the years but this is the first time we are hearing about him betting on NHL games. This is a pretty serious allegation against Kane and his Wife states he bet on his own games and threw games for gambling purposes. She also states that his gambling addiction is causing the couple hardships.
Kane’s gambling has been a problem and he even filed for Bankruptcy back in January claiming to have lost $1.5 million thats right, MILLION on gambling. Now listen, most of us gamble at this point and Kane is just like most normal dudes when it comes to gambling. The difference is that he plays in the NHL and isn’t allowed to be gambling on his own leagues games.
There was also a report that came out today that now Kane’s teammates in San Jose do not want him back on the team. You can read that article here. Interesting enough, Kane’s gambling is not the sole reason some of his teammates don’t want him back. The reason they don’t want him back is because of violations of team rules including showing up late to games and practices without any repercussions.
Obviously, the showing up late part is on Kane himself but it says more to me about the organization that they didn’t do anything to discipline him. What kind of message does that send to the younger guys in the locker room? For a team that is going through a rebuild the last thing you want in your locker room is a bad seed.
As for the gambling with Kane if he was gambling on his own games and doing things to try and throw them then he needs to be suspended indefinitely. While I really don’t think one player can have that big of an impact on the game unless it’s the goaltender it’s still not right to have someone out there that might be trying to throw the game. Like I said with hockey it’s not as easy to throw games if only one player is in on it. Sure he could take penalties and miss assignments but there is still enough other guys to counter act anything he did.
Bottom line is this situation could end up getting more messy as the league continues its investigation. It will be interesting to see how the Sharks handle this situation as well now that the reports have come out that his teammates don’t want him there anymore. The Sharks organization needs to get out in front of this as they are in the process of rebuilding and do not need the distraction that Kane could cause.
-Walsh