It didn’t take long for the Edmonton Oilers to start making calls to try and see if there’s a trade that would send Evander Kane to a new team.
The veteran winger had a full no-movement clause expire Friday night, shifting to a 16-team approved trade list, according to PuckPedia. And now, Oilers general manager Stan Bowman and his staff are making calls to those teams to see if there’s a market for the 33-year-old, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported Saturday.
“Last night Evander Kane’s no-trade protection evaporated. He no longer has a full no-trade clause, it’s a partial one. The Oilers are going through those teams trying to see what the market could be for him. Right now, the injury situation is still uncertain. We don’t have a timeline but the Oilers are trying to see if there’s a market for Kane, because if they do decide to go in that direction, it could open up more cap room for themselves.”
"The Oilers are trying to see if there is a market for Kane." – Elliotte Friedman.
📹: Sportsnet pic.twitter.com/Eo0xtoaHPM
— Woz (@itsWozzz) March 2, 2025
Kane is still working his way back from a pair of surgeries he’s undergone in recent months, having abdominal surgery in September to fix a myriad of issues, before having an unrelated knee surgery in January. As Friedman noted, there’s still no word as to if Kane will be able to return in the regular season, mucking up the Oilers salary cap situation in the week leading up to the trade deadline.
Now in the third year of a four-year deal paying him $5.125-million, Kane appeared in 77 regular season games last year scoring 24 goals and 44 points with all three of his key offensive numbers dipping below his career averages. His injuries hampered him in the playoffs, scoring just four goals and eight points in 20 games, forcing him to miss the final five games of the Stanley Cup Finals.
Kane is currently on the Long-Term Injured Reserve and while any team could acquire him, they would need to have enough cap space to add him to their roster before putting him on LTIR. Since Kane is there for the Oilers right now, they can exceed the NHL’s salary cap by $5.124-million.
But if Kane were to return to the Oilers in the regular season, the team would need to be cap compliant. That isn’t the case if Kane is activated after the regular season before Game 1 of the playoffs, however.
This may not be the first time the Oilers have attempted to trade Kane. Friedman reported last June there were rumours during the first round of the NHL draft that the Oilers had asked Kane to waive his no-movement clause, though rumours were never confirmed or denied.
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.
