Column: Patrick Kane’s trade saga is like a game of musical chairs — with the Chicago Blackhawks possibly left standing

It can’t be easy to trade a legend.

It’s even more difficult if you walk to the negotiating table with one hand tied behind your back.

By most indications, Patrick Kane wants a trade and the Chicago Blackhawks want to trade him, but there appears to be a disconnect between the parties on how to get that done.

General manager Kyle Davidson, who has launched a deep rebuild, has every reason to want to ship Kane to a contender for early-round draft picks.

Like longtime teammate Jonathan Toews, Kane has a no-movement clause in his contract, which expires after this season. Toews’ trade value all but evaporated Sunday with news that long COVID symptoms will keep him sidelined indefinitely.

However, Kane has let it be known he has a short list of trade destinations that places the emphasis on “short.”

“It’s a difficult decision for Patrick,” Davidson told reporters Sunday. “And that’s something we recognize and allow him the leeway to make the best decision for himself, and we’re going to follow that.

“When we do get to a conclusion one way or the other, it’ll be through a partnership and collaborative decision-making process.”

Davidson added that he’s there for Kane to “bounce ideas off of” to find the right situation, “but we’re not at the point where we’re looking at that specifically yet.”

Davidson has a gift for using a lot of words to commit to very little, but Kane said the GM isn’t just blowing smoke or pushing the ball back in his court.

“I don’t think he’s lying when he says that. I’m the one with the no-movement clause,” Kane said Sunday night after recording his ninth career hat trick (11th including playoff games) in a 5-3 victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs. “But we’ve been having discussions, and even with my agent, pretty much every day for the past few weeks. So it’s been ramped up for a while.”

Yet somehow the process feels stalled. Whatever collaboration Davidson and Kane say is going on hasn’t happened in a timely or definitive fashion, coming at a cost for both sides.

With each trade in the league, a musical chair is removed.

The New York Rangers, who had been a heavy favorite to acquire Kane, apparently got tired of waiting and dealt for St. Louis Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko instead. Kane admitted, “It’s not like the happiest I’ve been to hear about a trade.”

A lot of trade watchers shifted their focus to the Leafs as the next logical candidate, but they acquired Ryan O’Reilly from the Blues in a three-team deal Friday.

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When asked about it, Kane said: “I don’t think there was — at least that I know of — much discussion of that being an option. There’s a lot of different reports out there and not all of them are true. Got to be careful what you listen to.”

That begs the question: Was Kane a target for Toronto, or is it fair to infer that he isn’t interested in going there?

The latter might indicate that if Kane can’t decide on a handful of remaining candidates — or if those suitors don’t reciprocate his interest by offering the Hawks draft capital — then he’s content to stay put in Chicago, the only NHL home he has known since the Hawks drafted him with the No. 1 pick in 2007.

And if not Toronto, where? Kane hasn’t dropped so much as a hint publicly — only the Rangers after the fact — but players in his situation almost never do.

He did predict earlier this month that he’s “probably taking it up to the deadline and making a decision,” and in retrospect he wasn’t blowing smoke either.

“I’m assuming it’s going to be soon,” Davidson said Sunday. “We’re in constant communication, so we’re just kind of working through it day by day, but there’s no deadline or firm time set.”

Those gears need to be set in motion in earnest — and Kane controls the wheel — or more teams could be crossed off as options.

Kane was asked, point blank, what his gut tells him about how this all ends.

“I don’t know,” he said. “If I knew that I’d probably make the decision already. So we’ll see.”

Will we?