‘You can’t just snap your fingers and throw Evander Kane out’: Edmonton Oilers insider

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This is from Edmonton Oilers insider Bob Stauffer of Oilers Now, his speculation on the future of winger Evander Kane. Rumors have been swirling that Kane is leaving Edmonton in a trade, despite the fact that Kane now has a No Movement Clause, meaning he must approve any trade. Edmonton is looking to ship away a player or two before the season starts, as the Oilers are now $2.5 million over the NHL’s $88 million salary cap.

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“The problem is you can’t just snap your fingers and take Evander Kane out,” Stauffer said, adding a moment later. “I have to tell you, I don’t know how this is going to turn out with Evander Kane, because if they get the Evander Kane from two years ago, he’s a Top 6 forward. Realistically, he has the physical ability to be a 30-goal scorer in this league. And he hasn’t done that very often. He can score 20 in his sleep. … But here’s the problem, you have two other guys (new signings) in the mix, Jeff Skinner, who’s had six 30-goal seasons and Viktor Arvidsson, who’s scored 30 and had six 20-goal seasons.”

Kane, who turns 33 this season, had 24 goals and 20 assists in 77 games last season, despite playing much of the season with a sports hernia. He had four goals and eight points in 20 playoff games before a debilitating injury kept him from playing in the final games of the Stanley Cup Final against Florida. It has not yet been announced whether the injury will require surgery. TSN’s Ryan Rishaug reported that Kane has not been asked by the Oilers to waive the team’s No Movement Clause.

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Kane has two years left on his contract paying him $5.125 million per season, with the No Move Clause in effect until Feb. 28, 2025, when he can submit an approved trade list to 16 teams.

Stauffer said he had hoped Kane would be a wild card into the Stanley Cup Final against his old sparring partner Matthew Tkachuk of Florida. “They didn’t get anything from him,” Stauffer said of Kane. “He didn’t score a point in the three games he played and he went -4. It’s like they didn’t get anything from Evander.”

Stauffer agreed that Kane was simply too battered to play at that point in the playoffs.

CHED co-host Reid Wilkin noted that it’s been a strange year for Kane, where he was good early on but spent most of the year injured, and he took aim at coaches Jay Woodcroft and Kris Knoblauch for the lack of ice time. “A bit of a strange year, but if he’s got the complete no-move, then all he has to do is say, ‘No, I’m not going anywhere.'”

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But Wilkin asked, “Where does he fit, even if he’s healthy? Obviously more options are better. If you have a scorer on your third line, there’s nothing wrong with that. But will he be happy if he’s lower on the depth chart?”

“I don’t know how easy it is to trade him,” Stauffer added. “I think he knows there’s a pretty good situation here. But Reid, I’m with you, sometimes if you read between the lines of what he said, he didn’t seem overly enamored as the season went on, seeing his minutes being cut back.”

Stauffer closed with speculation that if d-man Cody Ceci were to be traded to create salary cap space, the Oilers would go with Troy Stecher and Josh Brown alternating as the third d-man on the right side, behind Evan Bouchard and Philip Broberg.

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My opinion

1. Evander Kane’s playoff performance was one of the gutsiest, toughest displays of will I’ve seen from an Oilers player in years. Ultimately, he was so injured that he couldn’t sit on the bench between shifts. But without Kane’s fierce hitting and intimidating presence, Edmonton beat Los Angeles so easily in five games? Kane crushed Drew Doughty and other Kings with nasty hits. And without Kane taking on Quinn Hughes and the Canucks’ Apex Predator Nikita Zadorov, do the Oilers even get past Vancouver? I doubt it.

2. After the playoffs were over, countless Oilers fans complained that Florida’s physical play gave that team an edge. They wanted the Oilers to be more physical and aggressive. Does letting Evander Kane go help in that regard? Are you really going to blame him for not showing it against Florida when he was injured? I personally feel that Kane is a unique NHL player, a big, fast winger with an offensive game who is also one of the two or three most intimidating players in the league. If you let that kind of player go, you could be looking for someone like him for years.

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3. This isn’t to say Kane isn’t without his warts, the biggest being that he turns 33 this year and has been injured for two straight years that have limited his effectiveness. It’s no surprise that power forwards at Kane’s age would completely fall off a cliff. I thought that might happen in the first five or six games of this regular season, when Kane started out as sluggish as Milan Lucic did in his Edmonton days. But Kane has bounced back with a solid season and a terrific first two rounds of the playoffs.

4. Another wart? Kane can be an uninspired defensive player. He doesn’t always rebound hard enough. He can throw the puck away too much in the offensive zone. He can get lost in d-zone coverage. He’s definitely at the bottom, not the top, of the defensive play for Oilers wingers.

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At the same time, when the playoffs get going, he’s able to improve his defensive game somewhat and provide at least average defense. Overall, in the playoffs, when it comes to creating Grade A shots and limiting mistakes on Grade A shots against, Kane was the second-best Oilers winger behind Zach Hyman and significantly outperformed the likes of special teams killer Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who was pushed out of the rough 5-on-5 game early, and Corey Perry, who too often struggled with the speed of the games.

5. Some people fantasize about Kane spending the entire season on Long Term Injured Reserve and then coming back to help Edmonton in the playoffs. It’s a sweet dream, yes. I get it. But if Kane was good enough to play in Games 6 and 7 of the Finals, and he seemed eager to get back to playing, I doubt his injury is bad enough to keep him out for the entire season. Better to throw that plan in the trash can of clever plans that almost certainly won’t come to fruition.

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6. As for trading Kane, that’s his decision. Again, I’d rather see the Oilers not do that and find a better way to free up cap space, perhaps by trading Ceci, who played solid hockey in the playoffs when he wasn’t paired with the slumping Darnell Nurse. I don’t want to see Ceci go, but the solid defense he brings is easier to find in other players than the fierce, intimidating, skilled play that Kane provides when he’s at his best.

7. Edmonton has only two big, physical wingers who like to hit and are willing to hit, Kane and Dylan Holloway. Kane ranked 33rd in the NHL in hits per 60 with 12.5, while Holloway ranked 34th with 12.4 per 60. The Oilers’ next best was diminutive Derek Ryan with 5.1 per 60, although the scrappy Arvidsson will help as long as he stays healthy. My point is that I don’t think Edmonton can afford to lose either of its big forwards, and that’s an even bigger problem now that big, tough defenseman Vincent Desharnais has left the team for Vancouver.

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In short: Kane can still help the Oilers win a Stanley Cup. He came close in May and June. In my eyes, he’s a keeper.

At the Cult of Hockey

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