How will Evander Kane's health affect Edmonton Oilers trade deadline plans?
The NHL trade deadline is quickly approaching and the Edmonton Oilers are bound to be busy, but how they navigate it may come down to Evander Kane’s status.
Kane has yet to play a single game with the Oilers this season as he rehabs multiple injuries. The initial prognosis had him out until at least February, but an update released by the team last week revealed a longer timetable. On top of all of his previous injuries, this new update detailed that Kane had undergone knee surgery last week and will need roughly two months to recover.
That would place a possible return sometime in March. Kane himself said he still hopes to play this season, but that remains to be seen. This will be extremely important for the Oilers to know as it will drastically change their situation going into the deadline.
Here are two possibilities that could happen with Kane and how it would affect Edmonton’s strategy going into the deadline.
Kane returns to play regular season games
If Kane can lace up the skates before the regular season, a few things will happen both on and off the ice that could affect the Oilers.
The most obvious is that the team will need to make room on the LW for Kane’s return. Right now, Kris Knoblauch has quite a crowded depth chart on that side of the forward group with all of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Vasily Podkolzin, Jeff Skinner, Mattias Janmark, and Kasperi Kapanen taking turns.
That is already five players vying for four spots with Kane making it an even six. Some movement would need to happen whether it be placing a player on waivers or potentially shipping off a player in a trade to make room.
The bigger ramifications of Kane playing games this season will be on the salary cap. As it stands, the Oilers have all of his $5.125 cap hit currently sitting on LTIR, allowing the team to spend that money as long as he remains injured. This is a significant amount of money to have at the deadline and it could allow the team to more easily make a trade for an impact player.
However, if Kane returns, this would force the Oilers’ management to ensure that they have enough space to squeeze hit cap hit into the lineup, thus effectively eliminating the team’s ability to utilize those LTIR savings even if he remains injured at the deadline.
Without LTIR, the Oilers could utilize about $1 million of accrued cap space, according to Puck Pedia.
If Kane is out for rest of regular season, #LetsGoOilers can exceed the cap by $5.1M.
Because they already set their LTIR pool at start of year with Kane on LTIR, they won't be able to effectively add accrued cap space + use LTIR pool, it's 1 or the other.Their roster right now… pic.twitter.com/ovhgo8c10Z
— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) January 10, 2025
This situation would allow the Oilers to add Kane into the lineup, but potentially hinder them in bringing in an impact player through trade.
Kane remains injured and returns in the playoffs
The opposite remains true, of course, if Kane winds up being unable to play in the regular season.
We have seen multiple teams take advantage of LTIR to make big additions at the deadline, with the Vegas Golden Knights doing so last season with an injured Mark Stone that helped them acquire both Noah Hanifin and Tomas Hertl. Stone was able to return to play in the postseason but, since the playoffs have no cap limit, this allowed Vegas to exceed the regular season salary cap.
Edmonton can do something similar if Kane remains on LTIR all season. According to PuckPedia, the Oilers would be able to add about $5.1 million through LTIR, meaning that they could bring in a player that makes that or less onto the roster through trade and remain under the cap.
Hypothetically, this could certainly help the team acquire a player like Pittsburgh Penguins defenceman Marcus Pettersson ($4.025 million cap hit) without having to worry too much about the cap implications.
Kane could then return to the lineup in the playoffs without causing any issues with the cap.
Considering how good the team is playing right now, this could be the preferred outcome as it helps the team to add a significant trade piece and can facilitate Kane’s return to the lineup. This would ensure the strongest possible Oilers team come playoffs.