One of the biggest unknowns on the Edmonton Oilers’ roster right now is former star winger Evander Kane. On the shelf all season due to injury, rumours have been flying around about Kane’s status in Edmonton.
Some reports indicated that Kane was healthy enough to play and wanted to return before the playoffs, which would mean the Oilers could not use his LTIR space and had to have room for him on the roster and salary cap.
Other reports postulated that was not the case, and the Oilers would keep him on LTIR until the playoffs.
These conflicting reports all pointed towards a common consensus that the Oilers were exploring options to trade Kane ahead of this afternoon’s trade deadline.
However, the most recent report indicates that the Oilers are leaning towards keeping Kane and not dealing him this season.
Hearing that the Edmonton Oilers are leaning towards keeping Evander Kane.
— Nick Alberga (@thegoldenmuzzy) March 7, 2025
There's been some interest from a few teams in recent days.
Implications of not trading Evander Kane
Keeping Kane makes things very complicated for the Oilers depending on his health status. If he is medically cleared to play before the playoffs start, the Oilers are obligated to remove him from the injured reserve. Kane’s has an AAV of $5.125M, and the Oilers are tight to the cap. If he returns, the cap gymnastics required to add him to the roster are quite convoluted:
Nothing final
Until the deadline is reached, nothing is final. However, it appears the Oilers will be keeping Kane and may have to get creative to fit him in.
Oh barf. They just need to dump him already. He’s worthless and toxic and brings bad karma. Oilers will NEVER win with his jui jui.
They’ll never win with Ryan Charmin Hopeless, Sadman Henrique, Loser Arvidsson, Stu PID Skinner, either. You mad about them too?
A healthy Kane is a net asset in the playoffs – I’d rather have him than not. The question is how quickly can he play in the playoffs? If the Oilers playoffs started today, the Oilers would play LA who I think they can beat anyway. But if they play Colorado or Vegas in the second round they’ll need all hands on deck. It would be good Kane to at least get a few games in the first round.