Kane attended the St. Martin of Tours school and started playing for the Cazenovia Chiefs in his hometown of Buffalo, New York. He played for the West Seneca Wings, Buffalo
Regals, and Depew Saints.
At the age of fourteen, he played junior hockey for the USA Bobcats and he scored many goals, giving him the title of MVP. Kane relocated to Michigan where he lived with former NHL player, Pat Verbeek, having been convinced to play for the Honeybaked AAA hockey club in Detroit. The club is a part of the Midwest Elite Hockey League. Kane's career with Honeybaked lasted for 3 years.
The London Knights drafted Kane in the 5th round of the 2004 Ontario Hockey League Midget Draft, but he did not choose to play for the Knights until the 2006–07 season.Instead, Kane played for the United States U-18 National Team Development Program (NTDP) where he led the team in scoring with 102 pointsduring the 2005–06 season. Kane's junior career started off with a bang. Playing on a line with Sergei Kostitsyn and Sam Gagner, he amassed 145 points for the OHL scoring title and combined with Gagner and Kostitsyn for 394 points.
Kane and the Knights finished the post-season losing in the OHL's Western Conference final to the Plymouth Whalers in a 4-1 best of 7 series loss. He finished his postseason with 10 goals and 21 assists for a total of 31 points in 16 games.
On April 27, 2007, Kane was announced as the winner of the Emms Family Award for the OHL rookie of the year.He was also named runner-up to John Tavares for the Red Tilson Trophy as league MVP.
Kane threw the Ceremonial first pitch at a Chicago Cubs game on June 25, 2007, at Wrigley Field.Kane later joined Denis Savard, the Blackhawks' coach, in singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game later during the day.Kane also threw the first pitch at a Buffalo Bisons (AAA) game in August. |
