I doubt very much Kane asks/gets more then 6 mil per. 6 mil per would put him tied for 7th with 4 other players. Kane knows about his off ice troubles and the fact that there are many GMs who would be leery of signing him period. The only LWs who make more then 6 mil per are Ovechkin, Nash, Parise, Daniel Seein, Gaudreau and Marleau. Pavelski, Lucic, Eberle and Forsberg all make 6. Jamie Benns 9.5 mil per deal kicks in next year. Marchands 6.125 mil per deal also kicks in next year. Kane is not as good as Marchand and the gap is quite big. He isn't making more then him. Kane gets 6 mil at the most.Kane is a top 10-15 LW when he is playing at his optimal level.That's a fair assessment. But he isn't one of the elite top 5 at the position.Kane and his agent will know that he really has no leverage to ask for more then 6. There's literally almost zero chance he is making near or over 7 mil per. It's just not going to happen.
Along with the aforementioned salary, giving Kane term is fine with Me. The guy will be 26 when his deal expires. He turns 27 a few months before the season starts when he signs his new deal. Even giving him 8 years Kane would be only 34. Hell, Murray signed Moulson to a deal that will have him be 35 when it expires, same thing with Okposo. So giving a long term deal to a winger until their mid 30s doesn't scare off Murray.
I posted a little while ago how I think Kane would rather have a longer term contract than a short-term contract with slightly more money.
Kane's camp does know he's got an off-ice history which scares GMs and also makes it harder for them to sell to ownership to pay big money, plus he knows he's 27 when his contract is up and has an injury history...plus the style he plays doesn't allow him to play in the NHL when he's 35+ like other guys (Marleau, Thornton, etc...).
I don't think he's going to be THAT coveted on the free agent market like some ppl think for the aforementioned reasons.
If TM wants to re-sign Kane, I think he discusses with Kane's camp about a lower cap hit with more years. This doesn't mean he's taking a discount...it simply means that he's taking a sure fire long term contract with security rather than taking a gamble and risking not only years and dollars but also being in a situation where he's not on a winning team (or at least a team with the potential to win).
I'd offer him a slight raise from his current deal but I'd give him 7 years (5.75M x 7 years). You can also sweeten the pot by adding a limited NTC for certain seasons and/or giving him a little bit more money as a signing bonus to begin the year (ex: if his salary is 5.75M for the season, give him 4M as a signing bonus for the first 4 years before the season begins - similar to O'reilly's).
If in 2-3 years the cap starts to go up again consistently, even at 1M-2M per year, that would be nice. (COME ON CANADIAN DOLLAR!!)