Edmonton Oilers could be looking to trade Evander Kane for a disappointing reason

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Liam McCormick
March 1, 2024 (3:29 PM)

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Heading into the trade deadline, you have to take a hard look and analyze your team without any bias. According to OilersNation writer Zach Laing, the Oilers may be seeing Kane's $5.125M salary cap hit as not a suitable fit on the rest of the roster. In a recent article, Laing explained that the Oilers may explore trading Kane at the deadline or in the offseason.

Edmonton could try and get crazy taking care of some early offseason work too, in trading Jack Campbell or Evander Kane � both guys who could find themselves as cap casualties in the summer.
-Zach Laing, OilersNation

Recently, much of the Oilers' fanbase has been divided over whether Kane is still a valuable player to this team. At his best, he can be one of the league's most explosive power forwards and a threat for 30 goals. Recently however, Kane's made less of an impact, which is sparking the concerns of his age, nagging injuries weighing him down, and his contract. On top of that, there's been reports from Rob Brown on the Got Yer Back Podcast that Kane may be causing some problems in the Oilers locker room.

We've seen that Kane hasn't been happy when he's been on the third line. I don't think there's a chemistry between him and Leon right now. I know that you watch body language and you watch the bench a lot, there was a very animated conversation two games ago between Kane and Leon on the bench. I listened to the post game, and Knoblauch talked about some frustration and some negativity has creeped in, and the teams not playing as well. But it's creeped into their dressing room and into their bench.
-Rob Brown, Got Yer Back Podcast

With some mounting concerns regarding Kane's ability to live up to his contract alone, there will be some discussions internally about moving him - if he truly is causing problems in the room, that process will be expedited. If Kane is to move at all, he'll need to approve the trade destination, as he still holds a No Move Clause on his contract until the final year in 2025-26. It would be disappointing to see Kane go due to a salary cap crunch, but with the upcoming contracts of Draisaitl, McDavid, and Bouchard, it will be a necessity.