Any player replicating the magician that was Pavel Datsyuk is a tough feat, but Patrick Kane thinks one player in today’s game is closest to meeting that mark.
On Friday, Kane said that Toronto Maple Leafs superstar Auston Matthews is the player in the modern game that most closely resembles the soon-to-be Hall of Famer and Red Wings legend.
“I don’t know, I guess I could see Auston’s game a little bit in his,” Kane said after practice Friday. “Maybe Auston’s more of a shooter, but as far as playing both ends of the ice and being able to strip guys with the puck and turn it into offence. I think that’s where they’re pretty similar.”
He did however make it clear that Datsyuk is a “unique” player and that there aren’t many players like him.
Datsyuk, who will headline this year’s Hockey Hall of Fame class, was a dominant force for the powerhouse Red Wings squads of the late 2000s, taking home three-straight Selke Trophies from 2008-2010.
Though Matthews has yet to get his hands on that hardware, the Maple Leafs captain has defined himself as one of the top two-way players in the league and was a finalist for the award for the first time last season, which the Florida Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov ended up winning.
However, the Leafs star has established himself as perhaps more of an offensive force, winning three Rocket Richard trophies over his nine-year career and the Hart Trophy after the 2021-22 season.
Kane is one of the active players in today’s NHL that would understand best how effective Datsyuk was on both ends. The two played for rival squads in the Central division for the first nine years’ of Kane’s career and met in the playoffs twice.
In 2009, the Red Wings downed the Blackhawks in five games in the Western Conference Finals to earn a spot in the Stanley Cup Finals. Then in 2013, Chicago got revenge, beating Detroit in a hard-fought seven game series in the second round en route to eventually hoisting the Stanley Cup.
Unfortunately, Kane won’t get a chance to face off against Matthews on Friday, as the Maple Leafs captain has been ruled out with an upper-body injury ahead of the game. However, the two will have a chance to go head-to-head three more times this season.
Instead, he’ll get to take on the player that Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube believes most closely resembles Datsyuk — Mitch Marner.
“Mitch does a lot of the same things. Mitch is a real good 200-foot player too,” Berube said when asked about who he thinks could fit the Datsyuk bill on Friday. “Kills penalties, anticipates extremely well, has a great stick. All those same qualities that Datsyuk had.”
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