No progress made in Evander Kane's situation with the Oilers

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Daniel Lucente
September 5, 2024 (9:39 PM)

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GM Stan Bowman of the Oilers was unable to provide any new details regarding Evander Kane's injury, which is expected to take some more time.

Edmonton Oilers president Jeff Jackson said earlier in the summer that forward Evander Kane has been dealing with a hip injury, and he and the team were still trying to make sense of what that means for his future in Edmonton.

On Tuesday, general manager Stan Bowman had a small update on Evander Kane while celebrating Leon Draisaitl's big contract extension. Speaking with Bob Stauffer on Oilers Now, Bowman says they're expecting more information on Kane's health within the next week or so. It's a frustrating situation, to say the least as there are still no concrete updates available for the fans at the moment.

There has been much speculation over the last little while that the Oilers might try to trade Evander Kane to free up some cap space. The team needs to free up some space ahead of the start of the season in October. Another option floated around is placing Kane on long-term injured reserve (LTIR), but it's very clear Kane and the team aren't exactly seeing eye-to-eye on either how serious his injury is or what he's still capable of doing on the ice.

Evander Kane has a full no-movement clause until February 28th, at which time it switches to a 15-team no-trade list. When healthy, he's repeatedly proven himself capable of bouncing back from those injuries. But the Oilers need to make decisions that benefit the entire roster, particularly after getting as close as they did to a Stanley Cup.

The most convenient out for the Oilers is placing Evander Kane on LTIR, particularly with the pending free-agent signings and the gigantic contract extension of Leon Draisaitl. Besides that, they will need to have cap space in the future as well to re-sign big names like Connor McDavid and Evan Bouchard.

So if you're the Oilers, how do you handle all of this?

Source: Hockey Feed
Frustrating update on Evander Kane saga in Edmonton!