What Should The Edmonton Oilers Do With Evander Kane?

hello Oilers fans Austin here and welcome to today's video where I'm going to be talking about Evander Kane his situation in Edmonton whether they can keep him whether they should keep him and kind of his whole situation there's been a lot of discourse around Evander Kane lately whether the Oilers are going to try and trade him if they might just put him on ltir for the season and then maybe bring bring him back in the postseason assuming the Oilers make the playoffs this upcoming year now during the Stanley Cup Final when he was being scratched I did make a video on a Vander Kane I discussed if he had played his last game as an Oiler but I didn't really go in super depth with you know my talking points in that video I was just kind of speculating based on the fact that he hadn't been playing I didn't realize that he was as injured as it turns out he was he's dealing not only with a sports hernia injury but also a hip injury too so you know there's a lot going on with a Vander Kane obviously there's off I stuff too but I'm not going to talk about the off ice stuff uh you know he does a lot of really good stuff off the ice in terms of the charity work but you know when it comes to the drama the the speculation the rumors I don't get involved in that I'm talking about of vandri Kane just as the hockey player and whether it's worth the mton Oilers keeping him or not whether they even can move him whether there's a team able to take him uh because I think there's still value for him as a player I think there's still value for that type of player in the NHL I just don't know if it's with the mton Oilers considering the forwards that they went out ins signed Evander Kane he's even if he's healthy he's been bumped down that depth chart so it'd be very interesting to see if the Oilers could even clear enough cap space to uh be cap compliant with a Vander Kane on the roster now if you end up enjoying today's video just make sure you hit that like like button and if you end up really liking it make sure to subscribe I've got a ton of Oilers content planned for the rest of the summer and not just Oilers content but hockey content in general so let's kind of jump into the Evander Kane discussion here so he has two years remaining at $ 5.125 million per year and obviously when he's healthy he puts the puck in the net we've seen him put the puck in the net a lot next to Conor McDavid but he hasn't been playing next to Conor McDavid very much the last year and a half or so and injuries have played a part in that too he has never played a season uh of 82 games he's never played 82 games in a single season in his entire career some of that is injury related some of that is on ice and off ice related issues like I said I'm not getting involved with the off ice stuff I'm just going to talk about the on Ice how he's impacting the team on a night toight basis during the regular season and the fact that he's never played 82 games in a season is a huge red flag I actually didn't even know about that stat until I was on Twitter this morning NHL Sid he is one of the best most analytically minded oers fans out there he writes for Oilers Nation make sure you give that guy a follow by the way he had put that out that little fun fact well fun fact in quotation marks it's not actually a fun fact uh so that was a really interesting fact that I wanted to include in this video I did not realize that he's never played 82 games in a season so that's obviously you know that doesn't look great for the long-term prospects of trying to keep him for the next two years I will say though he did play 77 games this year even with a sports hernia and apparently a hip injury now that might have been happening during the playoffs so you know he did play should he have been playing probably not Oilers probably would have been best to uh shut him down before the trade deadline free up some cap space to acquire more forwards or defenseman which they did not do but that doesn't matter we're talking about the future here uh like I mentioned he has a sports hernia and hip injury currently he turns 33 in August so he's on the wrong side of 30 father time is not very kind to this style of hockey player these power forwards these physical uh checking scoring forwards they usually fall off a cliff in terms of their production and with we've started to see that production dip a little bit here like I mentioned though the injury situation two years ago he had his wrist sliced which was horrifying and that probably is like really tough to get over mentally too I think we all forget about the mental aspect of what goes on on the ice sometimes and you know when you suffer a horrific injury if you witness a horrific injury uh I know for me I I broke my arm playe hockey when I was 11 years old and I still get mentally affected by that every time I step on the ice even with a beer league team where there's no body checking that is still always in the back of my mind so I couldn't imagine going through what Evander Kane has gone through on the ice with an injury like that and then trying to still play at the level that he expects to be playing at and how the team expects him to play so there's a lot of pressure there and I totally understand the mental aspect of that uh you know how that can affect a player emotionally and for Vander Kane uh the fact that he was able to even score 24 goals this year the fact he scored 16 in 41 games two years ago with that injury uh pretty impressive however like I mentioned it's just his foot speed slowing down he's not a great passer he is going to be turning 33 um so so I you wonder if he can keep up the 20 goals or more during the season uh and speaking of goal scoring he's when he's on the ice he's been outscored 77- 70 at 5v5 in the last two years so that's a negative s goal differential at 5v5 when he's on the ice so yes he is putting the puck into the net however the puck is also going into the net when he's on the ice again there's a lot of different metrics you can look at it's not always you know you can't just blame one player there are five other guys plus your goenda struggles so it it's tough to look at that aspect and be like oh you know Evander Kane he's not helping the team when it comes to the five on five scoring because when he's on the ice they're getting scored against well you know when you're on the ice when Jack Campbell was behind him and even Stewart skinners had his struggles too uh it's going to it's going to make the numbers look a little bit iffy of course when you compared to other teammates like McDavid and Dr Sidle they continuously outscore their opponents at 5v5 but again not everything is black and white there is a gray area but that is a stat that I wanted to talk about and then in the playoffs too the last two years outscored 26 to 18 at 5v5 the last two playoff Seasons again uh in 2022 23 um that Series against LA and Vegas steuart Skinner he did not play well at all he was yanked three or four times in the postseason and if Ander Kane happen to be on the ice during a lot of the goals against and you want steuart Skinner to make some saves and then even this past postseason Evander Kane was on the ice for a lot of goals against he was a minus s this year in 20 games played during the playoffs but again you can't just always blame One Singular player there's a lot that goes on on the ice but there is a bit of a pattern here there is a pattern of Evander K not being able to drive play at 5v5 or not being on a line that can drive play at 5v5 uh he's most effective when he's with dry cidal or McDavid and if he's not playing with either of them his metrics are really really poor they and and he's just not effective he needs someone that can get him the puck so that he can shoot it he is a volume shooter and for Evander Kane the last two years at even strength in the playoffs and regular season there is a sign that you know being scored against that net negative on the ice is starting to overtake his game a little bit and for the mton Oilers that's not a good thing because obviously to Win Hockey games you have to outscore your opponent and when we look at the penalty situation obviously we know his style of play he's going to take some penalties he's going to fight every now and then uh the last two years he's taken 46 penalties and he's drawn 33 penalties so that's a negative3 penalty differential so he he he puts his team on the penalty kill a lot obviously the Oilers penalty kill it's it's a team game you want your team to be able to step up for your teammate especially when a vaner Kane is regularly stepping up for his teammates uh on the penalty kill and we saw how good the penalty kill was during the playoffs this year hopefully the Oilers can build on that uh so Vander Kane when we look at the penalty situation obviously with his style of play that's not something that I'm super concerned about but it is something that I did want to mention because if you were regularly in the Box a lot more than you're being able to draw uh that can lead to long-term uh unsustainable issues for your penalty kill and sometimes depending on the situation in the game too if it's a tie game late in the third and you take a dumb penalty that's also not a good thing Evander Kane he's an emotional player he does get involved after whistles um he he can be kind of hot-headed on the ice I will say though he was pretty restrained this year especially in the postseason now I will say though obviously the injuries played a part in that it's not like he could play the physical style that he wants to for Vander Kane if there's going to be success in Ed if they are going to keep him if they're not going to move him uh if he's if he manages to get even like 95% healthy I think a Vander Kane would be best suited to not play that overly aggressive physical style I think if he just focused on a heavy for check and not fighting and not getting involved after whistles and just shooting the puck when he gets it on his stick there's value there I think that's that you can you can maximize the value with and I think he can even score 30 goals again in his career now I might be out to lunch when I say that but it is possible it's just the way he plays and these injuries now they are starting to take a toll um for Vander Kane I want I want him to succeed I don't ever want to see an Oilers player not succeed because if they're not succeeding then that likely means the team is not succeeding and as a fan obviously I want my team to win so for Evander Kane when we look at all these you know different facts here the stats should they keep him it would probably be best long term to move on from him well I guess short term because he only has two years left on his deal it' be best short term to try and move on I'm sure there's a team out there that would be willing to take his contract however he does have a no move he would have to wave it if Emon wanted to make a trade and then of course um if they don't move him during the summer at the trade deadline that no move turns into a 16 team no trade list so when the trade deadline hits Evander Kane can submit a 16 team no trade list uh and then that gives the Oilers flexibility to move him somewhere where he doesn't have to necessarily wave it because he's already waving for 16 teams so for Vander Kane and the mton Oilers obviously I hope things work out I'm not sure if they're going to be able to keep him if they should keep him when I kind of just break everything down like this I think it would be best to move on Evander Kane he came into mton he rebranded himself he got himself uh you know back on track after the off ice you know stuff that was going on in San Jose and I'm really happy for him he's done a lot of charitable work in the city of Edmonton and that's something that cannot be understated I know he just built a house there I know he has a couple kids uh obviously it's tough to just uproot your entire life I know it comes with the territory so I'm trying to be like I'm I'm trying to be really fair with a Vander Kane but when it comes to the business side you're in the business of winning in the NHL uh the Mt oers would be best suited to move on what do you think the Oilers should do with Vander Kane do you think they should move on from him do you think they should keep him what do you think is the best Sol solution here moving forward make sure you let me know your uh your comments or your thoughts in the comment section below and like I said make sure you hit like on the video make sure to subscribe if you really liked it tell someone that you love them and as always fight like Ben fight like a kid super important let's go Oilers