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This in from Edmonton Oilers insider Bob Stauffer: “Hearing there is a very good chance that the Edmonton Oilers Evander Kane won’t be ready for the start of the season…that he may require surgery…and is likely to be on LTIR to start the year.”

And in response family physician Dr. Harjas Grewal, who tweets about NHL injuries, said: “If it’s sports hernia surgery, typical timeline we see for NHLers is around 12 weeks.”

My take

1. Stauffer is the ultimate Oilers insider, so I put the highest level of credibility in what he reports. If Stauffer says this is the case, it’s likely what will transpire.

That said, things are murky around Evander Kane and the Oilers.

2. Stauffer’s comment directly contradicts information put out by the 2 Mutts podcast, who said they spoke with Kane. They reported on Sunday that: “Evander Kane will be ready for training camp, he will take part in the Captain Skates come early September. Going on LTIR isn’t the plan according to sources. Kane & his family have invested in staying in Edmonton over the next two years & beyond. The Ducks & Kings have interest in Kane but he’s not looking to waive his NMC at this time. He WANTS to be an Oiler!”

Nothing like a bit of intrigue in the dog days of summer. Hard to know what exactly is going on, though it seems like there may well be a bit of disconnect between the Kane camp and the Oilers. For example, if Kane needs surgery, why has it taken so long? Why did he not get it as soon as the season ended? And why are there now contradictory accounts?

Confusing, no?

3. Kane already ruffled feathers at the end of the regular season when he announced he was playing with a sports hernia. That had some criticizing Oilers GM Ken Holland for not placing Kane on LTIR at the 2024 trade deadline, which would have enabled Kane to heal up for the playoffs and for the Oilers to use his cap space to bring in another player.

During the 2024 playoffs, Kane was again a dominant player against Los Angeles and Vancouver, but injuries took their toll and he was unable to play in the final few games against Florida, a major setback for Edmonton. If  he and Leon Draisaitl — the team’s top two power forwards — had been healthy against Florida, Edmonton would have been far more likely to win the Cup.

4. Kane certainly looked chipper in a photo he posted on Instagram, holding children for family photos and playing with his son in a swimming pool on a Banff vacation.

5. Some fans see a benefit to the Oilers with Kane going on LTIR but I’m uncertain why this notion is prevalent. It’s highly unlikely that Kane’s injury is so severe that he will go on Long Term Injured Reserve all season but that is the only that way that the Oilers could use the cap space to acquire other players to take his spot.

If Kane is on LTIR for a month or two, the Oilers will be able to use his cap space, but will not be to build up or accrue cap space, and will also have to have the necessary cap room open when Kane returns to the line-up. The benefit from LTIR comes if a player is certain to be out all year; then the cap space can be used to bring in another player. There’s also a benefit if a player gets injured just before the trade deadline, as was seen with Mark Stone of Vegas last season. Then that player can go on LTIR for the rest of the year, opening up cap space for the team to bring in another player. If both players are healthy at playoff time, as Stone was deemed to be last spring, then he can return to a bolstered line-up for the playoffs.

5. There is no shortage of Evander Kane detractors, many of them upset that the Oilers ever signed the player, even as a California court did a most unCalifornian thing and granted him, the father, custody of his daughter in an angry and sensational court case against his ex-wife. But given his court win, clearly indicating the judge rejected numerous claims against Kane, I was OK with the Oilers signing him. When he’s been healthy, he’s been a major asset to the team.

6. My abiding concern is Kane the player, and what he can bring to the Oilers’ hopes of winning the Cup. His hard-hitting and solid play against Los Angeles and Vancouver were huge factors in Edmonton beating those two teams. If Kane is indeed out at the start of the year, if it takes many months to recover from his injury, that’s fine. The key is for him to be healthy around playoff time.

In this regard, it would have been wise for him to take off the final month or two of the 2023-24 regular season if he was hurting at the time. I’m not sure what happened then, but it was clear that Kane went into the playoffs banged up. Whatever the plan is, that can’t be the plan for this year. Given Kane’s ability to dominate physically, a healthy Kane in the playoffs could well be the tipping point between winning a key series or not in the spring of 2025.

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