Latest Rough Update on Evander Kane Revealed

And so it becomes official. The suggestion about a month ago from insider Elliotte Friedman was that Edmonton Oilers winger Evander Kane could face the possibility of surgery for his sports hernia. Now Mark Spector of Sportsnet is confirming that the rugged forward will indeed go under the knife within the next 10 days.

Evander Kane is scheduled for surgery in the next “10 days or so” to repair damage from the sports hernia he carried through last season, I am told.
Post-surgery prognosis should shed light on the recovery period, and of course, how Oilers will approach their salary cap.
— Mark Spector🇨🇦🇺🇦 (@SportsnetSpec) September 13, 2024

Kane played much of last season with the sports hernia, and was forced to miss five of the Oilers playoff games on their run to the Stanley Cup Finals.

He did tough it out for 77 regular-season games, recording 24 goals and 20 assists for 44 points, while playing 16:47 per night, his lowest TOI since his rookie season 15 years earlier. He did hand out a career-best 250 hits.

Friedman noted last month that Kane could miss several months as a result of the surgery, but it still remains to be seen what the prognosis for a timeline is once the surgery is complete.

As Spector notes, the additions of Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson this summer certainly give the Oilers additional scoring up front to fill that void, though Kane's toughness will be missed.

The Oilers have the option of placing Kane and his $5.125 million cap hit on LTIR, to give them some cap relief should they need it.