With Edmonton Oilers training camp medical Wednesday, it’s expected winger Evander Kane will fail the doctors’ evaluation and he will need surgery on his troublesome sports hernia sometime during camp. This leads to a slew of questions:
- What is the recovery period after this type of surgery?
- Why wasn’t this done over the summer?
- Does Kane go on injured reserve or long-term injury status?
- How much did Oilers know about Kane’s status back in early July when they signed another left-winger Jeff Skinner to that one-year $3 million deal?
- How hurt will Oilers be on LW with Kane and Dylan Holloway, signed to that offer sheet in St. Louis, both not in the picture?
A sports hernia issue is a soft tissue injury to a muscle, tendon, or ligament in the groin area, often coming from twisting movements, normal for hockey players. For an athlete, with post-surgery physical therapy and rehab, sports hernia patients can normally return to their sport in a maximum12 weeks although in some cases the damaged tissue can tear when a player returns to action.
So, why wait until now for the surgery, which, if he’s out three months, would have him returning sometime in January after practices and such.
Good question. It could have been done in July or August after Kane’s last playoff game was Game 2 of the finals (10 ½ minutes ice-time), and after he had nursed the problem, missing practices to save himself for the games. Presumably, Kane, his agent Dan Milstein, and the Oilers talked it over and agreed on rest first before last-ditch surgery. Maybe Kane just didn’t want surgery in his downtime in the summer months. Kane has to sign off on any medical procedure.
If Kane is only out three months, LTIR doesn’t give the Oilers the same trade deadline push as Vegas had last season with Mark Stone and his spleen issue. They stashed him there and traded for Tomas Hertl last March and Stone returned for playoffs.
With $945,833 in Oiler cap space right now (with Kane’s $5.125-milliom cap hit included), it’s likely preferable to have him on regular IR for, say, three months (recovery from surgery) and accrue as much cap space as they can. But would they do that with just 12 healthy forwards? Or would they have a farmhand like James Hamblin or Lane Pederson, making under $800,000, as a 13th healthy body to start the season but that would drop their overall cap space dramatically?
“The goal is not to put him (Kane) on LTIR unless they have to but the reality is the Oilers will probably have some injuries, so they’re going to have to do it (to have enough healthy forwards to play),” said PuckPedia founder Hart Levine.
It’s safe to assume the Oilers were covering their bases in the top six, signing the Sabres’ winger Skinner, who will either be on Connor McDavid’s left side or play with Leon Draisaitl. But, they didn’t think they would also be losing LW Holloway, who could have replaced Warren Foegele (Los Angeles Kings free-agent) in the top 9.
Even hurt, Kane had eight points in the playoffs, the fifth most by a forward. In the regular season he had 24 goals, which was fourth behind Zach Hyman, Draisaitl, and McDavid but it was a strange season. He went 21 games with no goals but had 10 of his 24 in four games, including hat-tricks against Anaheim and Seattle.
Medical update on Nurse
We’re not sure how many pre-season games Oiler defenceman Darnell Nurse will play but his injury issue goes back to Game 2 of the June final in Florida when Evan Rodrigues hit him hard along the side boards eight minutes into the game. Nurse immediately grabbed his left side (maybe an oblique muscle) and only played three shifts over the last 40 minutes of the 4-1 loss. He did play games 3-through-7 but was hurting.
Not having Nurse healthy for exhibitions, scuttles plans to see what right-shot D partner works best for his partner, either Troy Stecher or Ty Emberson, with PTO Travis Dermott, who can play right or left side but shoots left, also in the picture.
Good scouting report
Oil Kings’ centre Adam Jecho, Blues late third-round draft pick, had a good prospect showing at the Tom Kurvers’ Showcase that just ended. “Nice size and good hands for a big man, good positional player. You can see a big, solid two-way centerman down the road. The size and skill is pretty impressive,” said St. Louis AHL farm coach Steve Konowalchuk.
This ‘n that
- Sad to hear of the passing of former U of Alberta Golden Bear and 1980 Canadian Olympic team forward John Devaney, who died two weeks ago of cancer. Devaney, 66, led that Canadian squad (Glenn Anderson, Jim Nill, Paul MacLean, Randy Gregg, Kevin Primeau and Tim Watters were on that Clare Drake-Tom Watt-Lorne Davis coached team), with seven points in six games in Lake Placid before becoming an accountant. He was one of the founders of the local firm Pennock, Acheson, Nielsen, Devaney (PAND)….
- Kane has a full no-move clause in his four-year contract until Feb. 28, 2025, then it changes to a 16-team approved trade list…
- Ex-Oiler forward Jujhar Khaira, who signed an AHL deal with Syracuse, Tampa’s farm club, is on the Lightning’s camp list after last season with Minnesota’s farm team. So is goalie Ryan Fanti, who played for Oilers ECHL farm team last season. He also signed an AHL deal with Syracuse….
- Kudos to OilerNation’s scribe Bruce Curlock on continued tabs on Oilers highly-rated Russian defenceman Nikita Yevseyev and how the 20-year-old is wasting his time playing for KHL AK Bars Kazan. This past weekend, they dressed eight D in a game and Yeyseyev didn’t play a single shift. Yevseyev has this year left on his KHL contract and badly needs to get to North America to kick-start his pro career…
- Craig MacTavish and Charlie Huddy helped buddy Kelly Buchberger, the coach/GM of the new AJHL team in Devon, during their camp…
- Oilers second-round draft goalie Emiil Vinni, 18, could be playing for Finland in the upcoming U20 world junior but he’s one of three netminders at IFK Helsinki. He hasn’t played in their first two league games…
- Sam Gagner, who just signed a PTO in Carolina, is pumped to maybe play an 18th NHL season. “Excited for the (NHL) opportunity (Canes),” said Gagner, who hopes to make it on the fourth line or as an extra forward there.
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