Should the NHL Still Stay Quiet on Patrick Kane?

The Patrick Kane rape saga seems to be getting worse and worse. Around Wednesday afternoon, his accuser's lawyer said the evidence bag from the client's rape kit was randomly delivered to the doorstep of her mother's home.

While the attorney has asked for an independent investigation into this, the Buffalo police have said that the evidence in the case was still intact, further growing an already messy and ugly story.

This might have to draw the National Hockey League out of hiding with this league. It seems inevitable that they might have to take action against Kane. The real punishment at this time would be to tell Kane to leave training camp and go on paid leave. That is the NHL equivalent of the NFL commissioner's exempt list, which is the same list that both Adrian Peterson of the Vikings and Greg Hardy of the Cowboys spent all of last season while they were going through legal troubles.

The NHL must also begin its own investigation into Kane, which has been reluctant to do so. When the Ray Rice controversy came out, the NFL was quick enough to take action against him.

Gary Bettman came out two weeks ago, telling The Buffalo News, "It's unfortunate, it's a terrible thing, but we're going to have to watch the process play out and at the appropriate time, we'll make whatever decisions have to be made at the time."

Well, at that time, it seems the NHL has done nothing to let the process play out. Now, it seems that they have no choice but to take action. It's an unfortunate set of circumstances, but it seems that the legal process has already played its course and now they have no choice but to intervene.

I wish I could say that the NHL should stay out of it, but it seems like they have little choice left. The legal process already seems to get uglier and uglier and if it gets any worse, Patrick Kane could possibly be out of the league for a while, maybe even for the entire year. And that's not something the Chicago Blackhawks can afford and they certainly don't want that type of publicity surrounding him.

Let's be clear: Kane has not been arrested or convicted. He's only been accused, and an accusation is just an accusation and I said earlier that until he has been charged or cleared, he should be allowed to go to camp and participate in team drills and practices. I still believe he should, but now that the NHL might have to jump in, Kane might have to leave camp to avoid any unwanted attention or publicity. At least he's not an NFL player, otherwise, he would not have shown up at training camp.

The last time this kind of legal storm showed up, the NHL were quick to get involved. They suspended LA Kings defenseman Slava Voynov indefinitely from all team activities while he was being investigated for domestic abuse.

But that's Slava Voynov, not exactly an elite player. This is Patrick Kane, an already elite player. This was bound to get more attention and it already has. The NHL might have to step in. I certainly don't want them to, but the longer this drags on and the worse this might seem to get, there might not be another choice.