In Toronto for a Bauer event, Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane did a pair of interviews with TSN on Tuesday.
The Hart Trophy winner was asked what advice he’d have for Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews, a fellow American drafted first overall, for jumping right into the NHL.
“He seems to be mature beyond his years,” observed Kane. “When I was 18 years old and getting drafted, I think I came into Chicago and I was almost like too young and stupid to really even know what was going on. I was just very naive.
“He’s going to a market in Toronto where there might be some expectations, but it seems like he’s a really good kid, has a good head on his shoulders, and has a nice future in the NHL.
“So if I had any advice for him, I’d just tell him to be himself and he’ll be fine.”
Does Kane actually know Matthews at all yet?
“I’ve actually – he has the same agent as me, so we’ve kind of exchanged text messages back and forth, but never actually met him in person. Very happy for him. Obviously happy for him to go first overall, and then seeing what the Americans did in that first round, I think that was maybe the first time they had more Americans drafted than Canadians. So USA Hockey is in a good spot.
“Obviously looks like Toronto is getting a franchise player. You’ve seen different things, like watching him in world juniors or hearing about what he did in the Swiss League, how special of a player he is. You also hear he’s a great kid too. I think Toronto is going to be pretty happy with him for years to come.”
Kane was reminded of his recent comments saying that LeBron James inspired him while watching the NBA Finals, and was asked what about James impressed him the most.
“Well, I’ve always been a big fan of LeBron, going back to maybe the first time he came into the league. And then just seeing him win his first couple of championships and all for him to come back to Cleveland. I think one of the things I really enjoyed about his performance was he kind of silenced his critics. Even being down 3-1 in that series, everyone was counting him out. He kind of took it to everyone on the court and shut up his critics off the court too. So I think that’s something that’s really cool to see. Now, even if you’re a hater on LeBron, you really can’t be seeing what he’s done through his career and what he did there coming back in the Finals down 3-1, his historic block there, and also bringing a championship back to Cleveland, which he said he was going to do in two years. It’s pretty amazing what he’s done.”
Source: TSN (Kane reflects on his season, offers advice to Matthews)
Source: TSN (Kane always trying to improve)
Transcript: Nichols
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