Court documents show that the Sharks could be done with Evander Kane

According to a report from San Jose Sharks insider Kevin Kurz, the Sharks have told federal courts that they could terminate forward Evander Kane's $7 million annual contract. This information is being made public, of course, due to Kane's ongoing bankruptcy case. The 29 year old filed for bankruptcy in January, listing debts of $26.8 million and assets of only $10.2 million. He has an career earnings of over $50 million and still has $29 million owed to him under his current contract, assuming the Sharks don't terminate the deal.

From Kurz's most recently column for The Athletic:

Evander Kane and the San Jose Sharks have informed federal bankruptcy court that they are considering ending Kane’s contract. The seven-year, $49 million pact, signed in 2018, has $29 million remaining, according to creditor filings.

The motion from Kane and the Sharks read, in part: “SJS (the Sharks) was and remains Debtor’s (Kane) employer pursuant to a contract entered into on or about May 18, 2018 (the “Contract”). Whereas, as part of his bankruptcy filing, Debtor filed Schedule G, which lists … contracts and unexpired leases, and Debtor included the Contract on Schedule G; and, The Parties wish to extend the time to assume or reject the Contract.”

In other words, the Sharks and Kane have not ruled out rejecting his contract.

Kane and the team have cited bankruptcy law Code Section 365. That section typically is used in bankruptcies to reject commercial leases, like office space that is no longer needed, said one creditor source. It is not used to reject employment contracts, the source said.

Suffice it to say that it appears Kane and the Sharks are simply doing whatever they can to play the system and get a favorable ruling for Kane. While I understand that this is typically how things play out in the judicial system, I just can't help but shake my head. Here you have a guy who has earned over $50 million in his career and he's $27 million in debt? Take responsibility for yourself and pay your bills. If you can't pay your bills, stop racking them up. And then when you're done that, put a freeze on your accounts. Stop spending millions upon millions of dollars... it can't really be that difficult... can it?