American Thanksgiving is when most teams will be roughly at or near the first-quarter point of their schedules and we’re starting to learn a little more about them. So far, it’s been a curiously up-and-down October and November for many, where even the nominal Stanley Cup contenders have hit some unexpected skids — and some of the bad teams are flat-out terrible. Welcome to Part 1 of the November edition of the reader mailbag. Let’s dig right in.

To hell with the rumors, what does your gut tell you about where Patrick Kane will land? — Bill S.

I’m prepared to be wrong about this in the first five minutes after my answer is published, but my gut says with the Florida Panthers. And that’s based on the larger picture considerations, off the ice as well as on. Patrick Kane is coming off major hip resurfacing surgery, the same kind that has ended Nicklas Backstrom’s season in Washington. At this stage of his career, he wants to settle in with his family, in one place, on a good team, with a chance to contend for another championship.

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Kane turned 35 this past Sunday. At his age, and dealing with what will probably be a vigorous, daily maintenance regime, it’ll just be easier to tackle that in a warm-weather climate, where you’re outdoors all the time, moving around freely, able to stretch. The Panthers should be competitive for the remaining arc of Kane’s career. He’ll get a chance to play for a players’ coach in Paul Maurice and have a different professional experience than in Chicago and for a short while last season in New York.

In Florida, he’d get a chance to play top-six minutes, probably starting with Aleksander Barkov. And if that doesn’t work out, because sometimes what looks good on paper doesn’t always translate on the ice, there’s a good second option there, playing with Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk. Tkachuk’s breakout season came playing alongside Johnny Gaudreau, who at his best, can be Kane-like.

My dark horse is the Avalanche because they are still too top-heavy, even after all their offseason moves and could use help fleshing out the top six.

As much as Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald has done well creating a core for the top 6 on offense and “stage 2” of drafting the core of defense is showing up in Luke Hughes and eventually Simon Nemec, what is your perception/your sources’ perception of how active/aggressive the Devils are at improving the goalie situation? — Lee B.

Rarely do teams make significant goalie changes in midseason. It’s just too hard to adapt. Even position players traded in-season sometimes have a hard time fitting into a new team right away. It’s why most teams set their goaltending rotations at the start of the season and unless there’s an injury or a really bad slump, would make a change only under extreme duress. I can’t see that happening this year with the Devils. Instead, I think they’re committed to this pair for this year. What I like about what Fitzgerald did with Vitek Vanecek is that he only signed him for three years. This is Year 2. It’s a reasonable cap hit ($3.4 million). If it turns out goaltending holds the Devils back in the 2024 playoffs, they can address it in the offseason, which is when it’s far easier to shuffle the netminding pieces around.

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Akira Schmid, I don’t see going anywhere. He’s 23, on an entry-level contract and only going to get better. The other factor is that when Connor Hellebuyck signed that extension in Winnipeg, it took the one obvious impact pending UFA goaltending option out of the mix. I suspect Boston will stay committed to the Linus UllmarkJeremy Swayman rotation this year. Ullmark may be in play next offseason and might be a fit in New Jersey if he is.

Is it too early to start believing in what the Blues have done so far this season (in terms of making the playoffs)? — Michael P.

Not yet. Not for me, anyway. Just too inconsistent for my taste. I cannot understand how they can clobber Tampa Bay 5-0, win five out of six, look as if they’re on the rise, and then lose two 5-1 games back-to-back against San Jose and Los Angeles before looking just OK in Sunday’s win over a Ducks team that is coming down to earth after a promising start.

So yes, it is too early to start believing in the Blues. They need more from the power play (second worst in the league; only four goals scored, three by Pavel Buchnevich). They need more offensively from Kevin Hayes, Brandon Saad, Jakub Vrana and probably Jordan Kyrou, too. If the playoffs started today, they’d be in. That’s the good news. On paper, there are three Western Conference teams far better than all the rest — Vegas, Dallas and Colorado. So, the Blues should be in the mix, right to the end, right in the middle of the Western Conference standings. But they’ll need to get far more from the supporting cast to solidify that spot. And there’s no doubt in my mind they can.

Gary Bettman reportedly has four more years on his contract. (Ben Jackson / NHLI via Getty Images)

At some point, Gary Bettman is going to step down as the commissioner (we hope). Is the succession as straightforward as Bill Daly taking over and then more of the same? Or is there the possibility that the powers that be go in a different direction in terms of league stewardship? If it is the latter, who do you see as possibilities to reform the leadership? Who would you like to see as possibilities to reform the leadership? — Stephen H.

Bettman celebrated 30 years in office last February and even though he never talks about his contract, the belief is that when the six-year deal he signed in 2016 was about to run out last year, the league signed him up for five more years. If that number is true — and I believe it is — then Bettman will likely be commissioner until 2027. He’s 71 now. In four years, he’ll be 75. I’m going to guess that’s when he’ll step down. Bill Daly is 59, and I do think he’d like to get a shot at running the league on his own.

Nominally, Bettman and Daly report to the NHL’s board of governors, but the power lies with the executive committee — a 10-member panel of the most active and powerful owners in the game.

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In theory, the executive committee could hire a head-hunting firm to seek out candidates as Bettman’s eventual replacement, with Daly also getting a look.

But they’d only do that if they wanted to go in a new direction and were dissatisfied with the league’s current direction. I don’t think they are.

My best guess?

Even if they go through the motions of looking at outside candidates, the easy obvious choice would be installing Daly. He’s been patiently waiting his turn and might end up being a tad more progressive than the incumbent.

In my pie-in-the-sky world that you ask about, I would like to see less of a focus on business and more of a focus on hockey from NHL leadership.

So that would mean Paul Kariya as my nominee for new commissioner, with Ken Dryden on board just long enough to reform the player safety department. But I think I know Paul well enough that he couldn’t be coaxed into taking the job, under any circumstances.

Why is the league so against having eight, four-team divisions? The top team in each division makes the playoffs (no home ice guarantee). And back to the one-through-eight seeding. — Daniel L.

So, a brief history lesson: In the 1998-99 season, or when Nashville, the first of four expansion teams over three years was added to the league, the NHL switched from four divisions to six within the two existing conferences. By the time Columbus, Atlanta and Minnesota entered the league, it was a 30-team league, composed of six evenly distributed five-team divisions. In other words, a version of the idea you’re pitching.

But then in 2013-14, the league reverted to the old system — two conferences, four divisions and introduced the current wild-card playoff system.

I don’t think everybody loves the current format, but I also don’t think enough teams hate it enough to push hard for a change.

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Your proposal, as I’m sure everybody recognizes, mirrors the NFL system. But ultimately, I think the reason to retain the status quo is because of future expansion. Nominally, the NHL says expansion isn’t on its immediate horizon. My feeling is it will happen anyway, within the next five to seven years.

And if it does, at that point, they would have to tweak the system again because you’re now at 34 teams. Then, the four-teams-in-eight-divisions math suddenly doesn’t work.

When will the Houston Aeros join the NHL? — Brent C.

Probably not sooner than the 2026-27 season. I suspect one of Bettman’s last acts as commissioner is getting a $1 billion expansion fee from somebody. Vegas paid $500 million. Seattle paid $650 million. Someone will pay $1 billion.

Why is Keith Tkachuk not in the Hall of Fame? — Daniel G.

Tkachuk falls into that “Maybe yes, maybe no” category of candidates that also includes Rod Brind’Amour, Jeremy Roenick, Henrik Zetterberg and others. But what I would also tell you is a handful of players in that category — such as Pierre Turgeon, Daniel Alfredsson, Dave Andreychuk and Mark Recchi — all eventually made it to the Hall of Fame.

So, I predict Tkachuk will too. It didn’t hurt that Wayne Gretzky was pushing his candidacy on the TNT broadcast last week. He was also promoting Ray Whitney, as was Gretzky’s fellow panelist Keith Yandle. An interesting name there because it’s the first time I’d ever heard Whitney’s name as a possible Hall candidate.

(Top photo of Patrick Kane: Jasen Vinlove / USA Today)

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