With the Oilers hard at work ahead of Friday’s trade deadline, the team has been making calls to half of the league trying to gauge their interest in acquiring Evander Kane.
The rugged winger had a no movement clause change to a 16-team approved trade list late last week, which Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on Monday’s 32 Thoughts Podcast is made up of contenders.
Kane wants a chance to prove he’s healthy after undergoing abdominal surgery last September and a knee surgery in January, with Friedman reporting there could be ‘a disagreement’ between the team and player as to when he’s ready to return. The 33-year-old dealt with injuries for much of last season and missed the final five games of the Stanley Cup Finals.
The newest variable is Evander Kane. His full no-trade protection ended on Friday night. Come Saturday, it was basically half the league and nobody has confirmed this to me, but I heard a list was submitted.From what I’ve heard, and again, this is second hand, I think basically if you’re a contender, Kane will go to you. I heard his list is basically contenders where he can go to. He set it up where he wants to be in a place where he can win. That’s what I’ve heard, again, second hand. I thought that was interesting.Again, as I’ve said here with Kane, I think it’s important for him to play. He wants to prove, he wants to come back in the regular season, and he wants to prove he can be a factor on a good team. I don’t know what the medicals say, I know there’s a disagreement.I’m not sure the Oilers feel like… — I know we talked on Friday how they want to use the LTIR, right? Everything he’s been through, everything his body’s been through, I don’t know that the Oilers feel that makes sense. I just don’t know.At the very least, the Oilers are doing their due diligence. They got his list, they’re definitely calling around to ask the teams he can be traded to, ‘is there interest?’ Kane has another year at just over a $5-million cap hit, so they’re doing their due diligence there, because if they do find something, and you have to think they’d have to provide some incentive while he’s hurt to get it done, you have think they’re looking at it and saying ‘if we can do this, maybe we have even more cap room and flexibility available to us.’
This complicates things for the Oilers, who are — as Friedman highlighted — hoping to use the $5.124-million in Long-Term Injured Reserve pool money Kane’s status provides them to be buyers ahead of the deadline.
The Oilers, of course, need to be cap compliant if Kane were to return in the regular season, but not if he was to return in the regular season. Another caveat that complicates any potential trade of Kane is that the team trading for him needs to have the requisite cap space for him to be on the active roster upon his acquisition before having the ability to place him on LTIR themselves.
He’s is in the third year of a four-year contract signed in July 2022. In his three seasons in Edmonton, he’s scored 62 goals and 111 points in 161 games, adding another 20 goals and 30 points in 47 playoff games. Much of that postseason production came in 2022, when he scored 13 goals and 17 points in 15 games, while in the two playoffs since, he’s scored just seven goals and 13 points in 32 games.
Kane isn’t the only player the Oilers could be looking to move, as Viktor Arvidsson’s name has reportedly popped up, Friedman reported, who reported the winger — along with Adam Henrique — have no movement clauses in their contracts.
Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.
