Edmonton Oilers insider and Oilers Now host Bob Stauffer tweeted out today that Evander Kane may require surgery and likely be put on Long Term Injured Reserve to start the 2024/2025 season.
The 2 Mutts Hockey Podcast reported on Twitter last week it seemed more as if Kane was healing up at a rate decent enough to be on the opening night roster. This news from Stauffer contradicts the information they personally got, but I tend to lean more on the side of someone who spends more time around the team. 2 Mutts Hockey issued an apology for the wrong call, and they stated that they’ve been getting some hate messages for it. Please leave them alone, errors like this can be common as it’s hard sometimes to keep up with story accuracy.
The Oilers are currently -$354,167 over the salary cap limit, with restricted free agents Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg still needing new contracts. Both should get around $1M or $1.1M. But even if they assign Josh Brown and Troy Stecher to Bakersfield, they’ll still have barely enough money to only re-sign one of those youngsters. The moment Kane’s contract is put to the side will help boost up the cap space for that, otherwise someone else would’ve been traded recently. The question is, how long would he be on LTIR for and would someone still have to be moved at the Trade Deadline?
In the second half of the 2021/2022 season, Kane was exactly the type of forward Edmonton needed. His play that year, offensively and physically, warranted the extension he got. Fans have started disliking him heavily in hindsight now because he’s had loads of bad luck with injuries in the two seasons afterward. He’s instead just looked more like a better version of Milan Lucic after 2016/2017. The Vancouver series in this past postseason was up his alley, but his body couldn’t keep up after that. I don’t view him as a permanent top 6 forward anymore. But when he’s healthier, I’d love to see him on the third line, perhaps being centered by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. The increase in forward depth this offseason makes that a possible scenario.
I wish him a speedy recovery, and can’t wait for this team to be the Edmonton Golden Knights.
