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Top 100 Oilers: No. 60 — Evander Kane

Originally posted on Oilersnation | By Tyler Yaremchuk | Last updated Dec 2, 2025 12:22 PM ET

Oilersnation is reviving the Top 100 Edmonton Oilers of All Time list, a project originally created by the late Robin Brownlee in 2015. Evander Kane comes in at No. 60 on our updated 2025 list. He wasn’t ranked on Brownlee’s original list.

Evander Kane is another name on the long list of reclamation projects the Edmonton Oilers have taken on over the years, but he’s also one of the most complicated and interesting players ever to wear the jersey.

When the San Jose Sharks placed Kane on unconditional waivers in January 2022 for repeated violations of the league’s COVID-19 protocols, the situation felt like the end of the road for him. But within hours, insiders were already connecting him to Edmonton. The Oilers needed scoring on the wings. Kane needed somewhere to start over. The fit made too much sense.

Edmonton was tight to the cap, and a player who had routinely produced like Kane wasn’t available at a bargain price under normal circumstances. Baggage or not, a proven top-six winger on a cheap deal is exactly the kind of risk a contender takes.

On January 27, 2022, the Oilers made it official.

Via The Nation Network

Notable

Before he ever arrived in Edmonton, Kane had already carved out a very real NHL career. He was drafted fourth overall by Atlanta in 2009, became the face of the franchise during the early Winnipeg years, and posted three 20-goal seasons with the Jets before his time there fell apart. He was traded to Buffalo and had some strong seasons on teams that weren’t close to contending. When the Sabres moved him to San Jose in 2018, Kane hit another level, putting up back-to-back 30-goal paces and helping the Sharks reach the 2019 Western Conference Final.

His on-ice profile had always been the same: fast, heavy, hard to play against, and capable of finishing plays that most power forwards simply can’t. His off-ice story was always a little messier.

Once he landed in Edmonton, he made an immediate impact. Kane scored in his very first game and settled into the lineup instantly, ending the regular season with 22 goals in 44 games. He brought something the Oilers hadn’t had in years: a winger who could skate with McDavid and Draisaitl, score like a top-line player, and also make life miserable for the other team. When he was locked in, he looked like a throwback to the era when true power forwards still ran the show.

His real stamp on the team came in the playoffs.

The Story

Kane suited up for four postseason runs with the Oilers, but his first one remains the one most fans remember.

Edmonton entered the 2021-22 playoffs carrying the weight of two straight disappointing exits. The team had talent, but there were real questions about whether they could actually win when it mattered. Kane helped change that narrative immediately.

He scored seven goals against Los Angeles in Round 1, including the empty-netter in Game 6 and the now-iconic moment of him holding up seven fingers to the crowd as they filed out. Kane finished the run with 13 goals in 15 games. Even though the Oilers were eventually swept by Colorado in the conference final, the team finally looked like a legitimate, dangerous playoff group.

But injuries became the other defining theme of his time in Edmonton. A terrifying wrist laceration in a game against Tampa Bay derailed his 2022-23 season. He returned in the playoffs but wasn’t the same player. He then missed the entire 2024-25 regular season while recovering from the injuries he accumulated during that first Cup Final run.

He returned for the playoffs again and produced a respectable 12 points in 21 games, but it was obvious he was no longer the force he had been at his peak. In the summer of 2025, the Oilers traded him to his hometown Vancouver Canucks to clear cap space. At 5.125 million, it was simply too expensive to keep him around in a reduced role.

Even so, Kane left his mark. He finished with the 11th-most playoff goals in Oilers history, which is no small thing given the legends who came before him.

He helped push the Oilers through their first deep playoff runs of the McDavid era. He scored big goals, played mean, brought swagger, and gave the team an identity they had been missing.

Evander Kane’s time in Edmonton wasn’t perfect, but it mattered. And in a decade where the Oilers have been trying to climb the mountain again, he was a major part of the climb.

What Brownlee said

Count me among those who cast a big-time side-eye at the Edmonton Oilers when GM Ken Holland signed free agent Evander Kane in January 2022. Too much baggage. Too much risk. That was the story. I was in a sizeable group of people who thought so. You?

Here we are, a day before Kane blows out 32 candles on the birthday cake, and the edgy and talented forward has been nothing short of terrific on the ice with 38-29-67 through 84 regular season games and even better in 27 post-season games with 16-6-22. That, despite missing half of last season with a serious wrist injury.

We’ve heard plenty about Kane off the ice, but not in the way many people, me included, thought we might. There’s been no drama I can recall. Instead, we’re hearing about Kane and his relationship with 10-year-old cancer fighter Cecily Eklund and their trip to Disneyland in support of the Ben Stelter Fund.

We’re hearing how Kane showed up to play in an Edmonton beer league game in early July under the hilarious pseudonym Fa Afo, as in the acronym FAFO. Simply put, Kane has been a model citizen off the ice and money in the bank on it. He’s surpassed every expectation I had since he arrived – in large part because I wasn’t expecting very much – and has been a positive force in countless ways.