Oilers winger expected to miss at least four months

Oilers winger Evander Kane had surgery Friday in New York City to repair two torn hip adductor muscles, two hernias, and two torn lower abdominal muscles, as indicated last week. There’s no firm timeline for his return, but he won’t be back in the lineup until January or February at the earliest, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports.

All those injuries stemmed from Kane playing through a sports hernia for much of last season, including the playoffs. They didn’t limit his availability too much, costing him just 10 games combined over the course of the regular season and postseason.

They did significantly hamper his effectiveness, though. Kane’s 0.31 goals per game and 0.57 points per game were his worst rates since the 2015-16 season. He was especially diminished in the playoffs, posting four goals and eight points in 20 games while averaging under 15 minutes per night. It was a far cry from his showing just two years ago in the 2022 playoffs, where he averaged nearly 20 minutes per game for the Oilers and led the league in postseason goals with 13 despite Edmonton being eliminated in the Western Conference Final by the Avalanche.

Now, as expected, the Oilers will have the opportunity to place Kane’s $5.125M cap hit on long-term injured reserve. However, it’s unlikely they will. It was viewed as a potential necessity a few weeks ago, but after opting not to match the offer sheets the Blues tendered for Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway and trading Cody Ceci and his $3.25M cap hit to the Sharks, Edmonton projects to be fully cap-compliant with a 22-player roster that includes Kane, per PuckPedia.

The Oilers can place Kane on standard IR to free up a roster spot if they so choose. They enter the season with $945,833 in space, so the player they’re adding to the roster to replace Kane will need to have a cap hit equal to or lower than that amount. Potential candidates include recent PTO signee Mike Hoffman and minor-leaguers James Hamblin and Raphael Lavoie.