The Oilers will probably be with out ahead Evander Kane to begin this season as he recovers from a yet-to-be-performed undisclosed surgical procedure, in response to the workforce’s Bob Stauffer (X link).
Kane played through a good chunk of last season with a sports hernia, he revealed to reporters in April. It plagued him via the Oilers’ run to Sport 7 of the Stanley Cup Closing, holding him out of 5 of Edmonton’s 25 playoff video games. It’s unclear if Monday’s information is said.
The restoration from the undisclosed surgical procedure would probably sideline him for at the very least the primary 10 video games and 24 days of the 2024-25 marketing campaign, that means the Oilers can place him on long-term injured reserve. Doing so would enable them to achieve short-term reduction from his $5.125M cap hit, giving new normal supervisor Stan Bowman some much-needed monetary flexibility.
Edmonton’s roster at present tasks to verify in at greater than $350K over the $88M higher restrict, per PuckPedia. Not solely do the Oilers want house for day-to-day transactions, however additionally they nonetheless want to come back to agreements with RFAs Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway.
After an underwhelming 2023-24 season, the 33-year-old Kane could have appeared like a possible commerce candidate for Edmonton to clear cap house. However a full no-movement clause via July 1, 2025, meant he might have blocked any transfer, together with a waiver placement, and the second yr of time period remaining on his deal makes him a more durable promote to groups.
Actually, it’s been an underwhelming couple of seasons for Kane after a robust preliminary exhibiting in Edmonton. His 44 factors in 77 video games final season have been particularly poor manufacturing for the ability ahead, and his 0.57 factors per sport have been his worst because the 2015-16 season.
He didn’t fare a lot better in an injury-plagued 2022-23 marketing campaign both, restricted to 16 objectives and 28 factors in 41 video games. His 0.68 factors per sport that yr cratered from the yr prior, when he put up 0.91 per sport after signing with the Oilers midseason following a contract termination by the Sharks.
The 2-time 30-goal scorer nonetheless completed fourth on the Oilers in objectives (24) and led them in hits (250) final yr, however his 16:47 ATOI was his lowest utilization since his rookie season with the Atlanta Thrashers in 2009-10.
