Evander Kane‘s status has been up in the air over the last couple of months. Ever since he got scratched from the last few games of the Stanley Cup Final, conflicting reports about his health and place on the team keep churning out.
Now as we hit the middle of August and teams are just weeks away from gathering for training camp, the latest update has dropped and it has just added more uncertainty to the mix.
Bob Stauffer has suggested on X that Kane may start the season on LTIR as he could still need surgery.
This report was corroborated by Ryan Rishaug the next morning.
Given the events of Tuesday morning with the St. Louis Blues offer sheeting Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg, the timing of this suggests a sense of urgency in an attempt to figure out the cap situation for next season.
Evander Kane’s status
Once the season wound down, we learned that Kane had been playing injured for most of the season, significantly impacting his production and play. He trailed off in a big way by the end of the season, including a stretch from February to the end of season where he had just 15 points in 33 games. Within that span, Kane went two months without a goal. 21 games total with only four assists.
His icetime dropped as the season went on as well, falling even further in the playoffs. He averaged just shy of 17 minutes per game in the regular season. That number went down to 14:57 in the playoffs. In 20 playoff games, he had four goals and eight points.
Kane last played in game two of the Cup Final before being scratched due to injury for the season’s final five games.
After a conversation with Coach Kris Knoblauch in a practice before Game 3, Kane left the ice and did not return.
Will Kane be an Oiler next season?
Each and every update that comes out throws more question marks into the mix. The team has been tight lipped on Kane, other than Knobluach talking about the sports hernia injury that kept him out of the final few games of the Stanley Cup Finals.
Around the same time, however, some rumblings started up indicating the team was going to try and move on from the streaky and oft-injured winger.
Obviously, that move had not happened yet, contradicting the reports that were picked up by others in the media around that time. It begs the question of the team not being able to find a worthwhile trade for Kane and his two remaining years under contract at an AAV of $5.125M.
Kane and the LTIR route?
If there is no trade partner, there may be other options on how to handle the duration of Kane’s contract. Indicated by Stauffer’s tweet, he may not be healthy enough to play anyways. Opening the option to place him on LTIR for a while.
This could be a beneficial move for the Oilers, if he were to be eligible for this. Edmonton is a cap strapped team who is now dealing with offer sheets from the St. Louis Blues for RFAs Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg. Those were signed early Tuesday morning totalling $6,871,374M AAV between the two ($2,290,457M for Holloway and $4,580,917M for Broberg).
That, combined with a bunch of deferred bonuses from some contracts signed last season, is not doable under the cap and would likely lead to them needing to carry a less-than-full roster into the 2024–25 season.
In fact, the Oilers are already slightly over the cap even before the offer sheets were signed.
Being able to place Kane on LTIR would help solve that as they could exceed the cap by a few million once the transaction is complete, hopefully fitting at least one of the two RFAs.
This option could also open the doors to making a bigger add at a position of weakness, once we have a better sense of the roster into the season.
Is Evander Kane going to be ready to start the season? What will the team do with him? Drop a comment down below!
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