Back in early January, as per NHL.com, the Edmonton Oilers confirmed that Evander Kane had undergone successful knee surgery. At the time it was noted that his recovery time would be somewhere between four and eight weeks.
While this update was both welcomed by and encouraging for Oilers fans, it still lent itself to a certain degree of ambiguity. What was particularly interesting, was that if Kane took the full eight weeks to recover, this would effectively take us up to the Mar. 7 trade deadline.
The reason for this being so interesting, is that the Oilers have a potential extra $5.125 million of salary they can use towards bringing other players in, courtesy of Kane and his salary for this season currently being on Long-Term Injured Reserve. However, this possible 'bonus' money would become null and void, if the winger were to return to action before the playoffs.
Evander Kane back on the ice for the Oilers
Well, now we have another update in respect of Kane's recovery, which is again a positive but still leaves his status up in the air to a certain extent. As per Jason Gregor of Edmonton Sports 1440, the 33-year-old has actually started skating again.
Gregor, who shared his update on social media during Friday, goes on to add that Kane has skated for the past two days at around 60 percent, as he still needs to get back up to speed. This is understandable, since the 2009 fourth overall draft pick hasn't played since Game 2 of last season's Stanley Cup Final.
We have previously predicted -- without any inside knowledge whatsoever -- that Kane will not be back until the playoffs. Convenient or not, this would then allow the Oilers to use that aforementioned additional $5.125 million of bonus salary to help bring in reinforcements prior to the trade deadline, and with no need to pay it back.
The countdown to the Mar. 7 trade deadline
This makes the next two weeks extremely interesting, as we count down to Mar. 7 and with the Oilers certainly needing some upgrades, with our number one concern being the goalie position. We appreciate though, that we could end up being wrong about our prediction for the timeline of Kane's return.
There may well be some concern among fans about not bringing Kane back until the playoffs, just in the fact that his ability to contribute could be compromised somewhat by not seeing any game action beforehand. However, there is some way to get around this, at least to a certain extent.
Consider that Kane is 'allowed' to be sent to Bakersfield for a conditioning stint of up to three games with the Condors. After this point the Oilers can then ask for an extension, but this does come without any guarantees.
Kane has long proved to be a tough and gritty player, as evidenced by playing through a sports hernia all of last season before his body finally broke down on the biggest stage the game has to offer. Whenever he does finally return, he is also an extremely talented forward who could essentially count as a new and fresh player to help the Oilers during the playoffs and their quest for a second consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup Final.
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