KHL coach says Evander Kane is out of shape

Evander Kane hasn’t exactly had the greatest start to his KHL sojourn.

Just look at his stats with Dinamo Minsk so far: zero goals, zero assists, 14 penalty minutes and a -3 rating in three games.

Kane’s struggles aren’t lost on the team’s coaching staff, either, as Pavel Lysenkov reports.

Evander Kane - only 11 min ice time. Dynamo Minsk coach said he is in bad shape and not ready yet to play on KHL level. #jets

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Pavel Lysenkov (@plysenkov) October 07, 2012

It hasn’t been an offseason of great signs for the Winnipeg Jets franchise.

• The Jets barely beat the CBA deadline to ink Kane to a six-year, $31.5 million contract only to see this slow start overseas. (Perhaps he assumed the lockout would drag on?)
• Word surfaced that Ondrej Pavelec was charged with a DUI before he signed a big deal of his own to be the go-to guy in net. The cherry on top is that he’s off to an awful start as well, registering an 0-5-0 record, .859 save percentage and 4.63 GAA, according to Matias Strozyk.
• Whether the coverage was bloated or not, seeing some troubling photos of Dustin Byfuglien‘s physique eats the cherry on top.
• Let’s not forget that the Jets have only been “back” in Winnipeg for one season.

To review: three of the Jets’ most important players are experiencing growing pains (to be generous). If there’s a silver lining to the lockout, it’s that they have some time to work out the kinks.