Is Patrick Kane’s Red Wings tenure over? ‘We’ll kind of see’

DETROIT — It was impossible not to notice, on this year’s Red Wings’ locker cleanout day, the contrast in the tone and tenor of the day’s final two exit interviews.

First, there was David Perron. The veteran winger is set to become a free agent on July 1, but when he spoke Thursday, he used words like “we” and “us” when talking about the direction of the Red Wings moving forward. He may not know exactly what his future holds just yet, but when the subject was raised, he left no ambiguity about his preferences. “There’s no reason, at this point, to think about anywhere else,” he said.

And then there was Patrick Kane.

Kane’s arrival midseason was a jolt into this Red Wings team. He is a rare level of star in the NHL, and even coming off an uncommon hip procedure, he had plenty of “Showtime” magic left in his hands and brain. He scored one of the most memorable goals of the season, an overtime winner in his return to Chicago. By points per game, he was Detroit’s second-leading scorer.

Like Perron, though, Kane’s contract is up, and he can become a free agent on July 1. He doesn’t know his future yet, either. And when Kane entered the room and a reporter joked about whether he had been in the back signing a contract extension, Kane’s response was noticeably delivered in the past tense.

“It was a great year,” Kane said. “I have nothing but positive things to say about the organization, obviously the opportunity from (Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman), and (head coach Derek Lalonde) to give me the chance to come and play, the situations I was put in, I feel like I got a lot of opportunity to play in the top six and power play, and just play with some great players. It was fun to be around the group. It was fun to be a Wing and in this organization. And I’ll definitely have some memories to last me a lifetime.”

Kane did say, when discussing his pending free agency, that he would “explore the situation here,” and see what makes sense. When asked if he expected to hit free agency either way, he answered “it’s hard to say right now. It’s hard to really fully understand the situation. But I guess we’ll kind of see, see what happens. I’m sure my agent and Steve will have those conversations, and kind of go from there.”

That’s not a closed door.

But it also didn’t inspire much confidence that Kane’s year in Detroit would turn into something more.

What will Kane base his decision on? What factors are most important?

“It’s kind of hard to say right now, because everything’s just so fresh, with the season being done and everything,” Kane said. “I think coming into this year, my decision was based on playing on a good team, a team where I thought I fit in well, obviously the comfort (of) playing with Alex (DeBrincat) again was something I was looking forward to, and really enjoyed that as well. But as the season goes on, you realize there’s a lot of good players here,…