Jets' Kane: Personalities in the NHL will 'benefit everybody'

For all intents and purposes, Evander Kane should be a marketing dream. 

At 6-foot-3 and 198 pounds, Kane can score 30 goals, scrap, and bang bodies with the best of them. He can do it all on a sheet of ice and he does it with a trendy design shaved into the side of his head.

He's a lightning rod in a scrapheap of rubber. And for him, therein lies the problem with the NHL. 

Kane believes players that deviate from the norm should be celebrated, not vilified, in a conversation with Sportsnet.

Why do those other leagues have more success in terms of marketing their players? Their personalities? Hockey is the sport that I love, but it’s also the entertainment business. The ice is a stage. When I’m in front of the cameras it’s a stage. Fans come to the building to be entertained. They read the newspapers to be entertained. They listen to the radio to be entertained. If you are mindful of that, maybe me winning money in Las Vegas and being excited about it - like anyone else would - isn’t the worst thing in the world.

There is that (humble) reputation in hockey. But I think now you’re starting to see some diversity in personalities. The way social media is now … just the spotlight being on you so much. I think it’s going to benefit everybody.”

The NHL and its fans will always welcome the head-down, lunch-pail style of a Jonathan Toews or a Sidney Crosby, but assimilation is indeed as mundane as Kane suggests. 

It's contrived, sure but the concept of heroes and villains will always work. And with Kane once again the subject of trade chatter, maybe he'll be the one to capitalize on what LeBron James did for the NBA. 

From hero to villain in Winnipeg, and maybe - one day - back again.