Insider: Evander Kane To Be Out For "Much Longer" Than Anticipated

The Edmonton Oilers have a busy few days ahead as they try to figure out how to manage the offer sheets that the St. Louis Blues threw at them on Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway. They are over the cap, and that is a huge problem.

However, as we noted earlier this week, Evander Kane will be headed to long-term injury reserve to start the season as he considers surgery, which gives the Oilers about $5 million (Kane's salary) with which to work, at least. The concern is that that's only a temporary solution, as Kane will eventually return from LTIR.

But we're hearing now from hockey insider Elliotte Friedman on his 32 Thoughts podcast that that concern will actually be much farther down the road than originally thought, as Kane could be out for several months.

I believe Evander Kane is going to have surgery. I think one of the reasons it took this long is because there was some conversations about which doctor was going to do it, and they had to work that out... He’s going to be out months, and I’m not talking like 1 or 2 months, I think it's going to be longer than that.

What all this means is that the team can go over the cap by 10% for now (allowed during the summer), and then "can punt this decision into the year."

The Broberg and Holloway offers combined come in at about $5.8 million, while the team is currently about $350,000 over the cap as well. Now that they have Kane's $5.1 mill to work with, which helps. But by Oct. 1st, they must get themselves cap-compliant, which, all in all, bottom line, would mean they'd have to clear another $2 million or so, if they intend to match on both Broberg and Holloway.