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THEO KANE ENJOYS HOT START TO HIS STINT IN TEXAS


The biggest offseason acquisition made by the Renegades shows that he still has plenty of gas left in the tank through the season's opening games.
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For the Texas Renegades and their fans, the S40 offseason was one that brought a lot of mixed feelings. The transition of new GM Sven Karlsson and his right hand man Zach Miller into power brought with it some deep changes into the team's structure and setup, and besides this, the devastating loss of longtime Renegades goaltender Georgette Pel to abrupt retirement left the organisation reeling. The team's inability to sign its main free agent targets in Dani Forsberg and former Renegade Adam Kaiser also meant the team was unable to pick up the additional firepower it would have liked to take into what is perhaps the last season they can hope to really compete in for the time being due to some of the personnel losses they are set to suffer after this season. The one area of real positivity for the Renegades however did come from the free agent market of sorts, although the deal was done a long time before free agency discussions opened, before the end of the S39 playoffs in fact. Veteran forward Theo Kane, one of the best to ever lace them up in the SHL, had spend S39 with the Buffalo Stampede and had something of a down season, especially by his standards, scoring 30 points on a team that didn't make a real push to make the playoffs. It was announced towards the end of the season that Kane had elected to not take up the second year of his contract with the Stampede and would be once more testing the market for free agency, and it was at this point that Texas knew they had to make a move. The chance to add a player with the skill and experience of Kane doesn't come around often, so Karlsson and Miller decided to pursue a risky strategy and trade some low value assets to the Stampede to enable them to open up contract talks with Kane early, giving them the crucial ability to show him how things worked in Texas and describe to him exactly what the team had to offer. It proved to be a good move, as the next day after some straightforward contract negotiations, the Renegades signed Kane to a contract for S40, boosting their forward group immediately and giving them another offensive weapon to utilise in the hope of dampening the blow of some key losses in net and on the blueline.

Although S39 had seen him not really produce the goods in the way that he would have wanted, the Renegades had faith that a player with the incredible talent of Theo Kane was still an invaluable asset to have despite him getting on in years. A man who has won league MVP, led the SHL in scoring on multiple occasions and been perhaps the best player of his generation isn't going to lose that spark in the space of a few years, and the Renegades had great faith that he was going to come out strong and prove that he still had it, and that's exactly what Kane did. You could have been forgiven for thinking they'd gone ten years into the past when watching the Renegades play the Jets in their second game of the season based on the way that Kane was playing the game. Every time he stepped onto the ice he seemed to make something happen, finishing the game with 3 points and giving a reminder that when he's on his game, he is close to unstoppable. The dominant form he had established at the very start of the season has continued throughout the opening stretch of the season. The Renegades form has been mixed through the first 6 games of the season, with the team having won 3 and lost 3 and sitting in 5th place, just outside a playoff spot. In these games however, Kane has played like a man in his prime, leading the team in scoring with 7 points, better than a point per game pace in the six games he's played so far, 3 goals and being a +4 on the ice too, Kane's statline through the Renegades' opening gambit has been seriously impressive, making him a clear difference maker for the team in some of the close games they've managed to get over the line in. The effect of Kane's veteran presence became very clear in the Renegades' last two games against the Los Angeles Panthers, two incredibly close matchups that weren't settled after regulation and had to be taken to overtime. In both games, Kane was the architect of the game winning goals for the Renegades, picking up primary assists on both and being the reason that the Renegades were able to establish themselves with two crucial early season wins. While his acquisition was overshadowed to many by some of the other big name free agent signings made by other teams, based on what Kane has showed the Renegades so far, the move to bring him in might just be the one that keeps the team's hopes alive this season.

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Although the way this season will play out for the Renegades down the stretch remains very much a mystery, and although the team performance hasn't gelled in the way they would have liked and given the team the start they would have hoped for, the way that Theo Kane has come in as a new player in the system and thrived is a massive positive for the team, and something that has made the management group extremely happy. A player with his ability and track record of success despite him no longer being in the years that would conventionally be his prime is always going to have the potential to turn a game on its head, and Kane has done that very successfully so far this season for the Renegades. In a season where many are taking their last ride and the Renegades team we've seen over the last decade or so may be coming to its natural end, the strong start to the season that Kane has showed has injected some much needed faith into those around the team. If the Renegades are going to be a team with a real chance at making the postseason in S40, it's going to be vital that Kane continues to play at the pace he's set himself so far this season, there's a lot of responsibility resting on those old shoulders.

ty <a href='index.php?showuser=1344' rel='nofollow' alt='profile link' class='user-tagged mgroup-3'>Lunaro</a> for carrying us so far