Red Wings forward Patrick Kane and captain Dylan Larkin are taking part in the U.S. Olympic orientation camp at USA Hockey Arena presently, and Kane spoke with both ESPN’s Emily Kaplan and NHL.com’s Nicholas J. Cotsonika regarding his Olympic dreams.
Kaplan framed Kane’s participation in the U.S. Olympic orientation camp as follows…
Kane, who turns 37 in November, is right on the cusp as he was among the 44 players Team USA invited to their Olympic orientation camp this week in Plymouth, Michigan. The 2026 Games in Milan will mark the first time the NHL sends players to the Olympics in 12 years. Kane, now a Detroit Red Wing after 16 years in Chicago, is looking for his third Olympic appearance; the winger was on the 2010 team in Vancouver (which won silver, after falling to rival Canada in a thrilling gold medal game) and 2014 team in Sochi.
Several players admitted they are rooting for Kane to make the team. “I think every guy here is a Patrick Kane fan,” Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin said. “For a lot of younger guys, myself included, we all looked up to him, we all wanted to be Patrick Kane. He’s a very big deal for our sport, and especially USA Hockey.”
Kane, however, doesn’t want to be selected based on past laurels or name recognition.
“I don’t want that to be a thing either, where you’re getting selected for the team because of all that stuff,” Kane said. “You want to be selected for the player you are now and what you can bring to the team now.”
Team USA General Manager Bill Guerin told ESPN last winter that Kane was among the final and most difficult cuts for the Four Nations team. Guerin personally met with Kane at the rink in Detroit to deliver the news.
“You respect the gesture of them coming up and telling in person, but you’re still disappointed by it,” Kane said. “And I remember we played Pittsburgh maybe a week or two later, and then [former coach Mike] Sullivan wanted to talk to me after too. It was just like, it kind of rubs it in even more.”
As such, Kane told both Kaplan and Cotsonika that a best-on-best tournament’s gold medal is what’s missing from his career, and, after a good summer’s worth of training, Kane knows that it’s imperative for him to start the 2025-2026 season well:
“There’s really no excuse for me not to have a good start,” he said.
Kane is eight goals from 500 in the NHL and 32 points from passing Mike Modano for the most in the NHL among players born in the United States. He commands respect at this orientation camp, especially from young players who grew up idolizing him.
“We all wanted to be Patrick Kane,” said center Dylan Larkin, now a Detroit teammate.
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Kane brings a perspective no other current player can. He pointed out he had been to orientation camps in 2010 and 2014. The message was the same then as it is now: It’s time. The United States hasn’t won Olympic gold since 1980 in Lake Placid or a best-on-best tournament since the 1996 World Cup.
He wants to play a meaningful role in putting his country back on top.
“Yeah, that’s all it is, is gold, and trying to get over the hump of Canada,” Kane said. “They’ve won the last two Olympics in best-on-best and the last two World Cups in best-on-best. Yeah, that’s what it’s all about, to win the gold.”
