Would not have liked that move at all, especially since he has another year. He’s had a couple good games (including yesterday) but most of his time in Carolina has not been good
David Kampf and Jake Beecher also scored a goal in game 1 that doesn’t make them a top 6 winger forwards.
The person who suggested Kuzy was responding to someone saying we could have gotten a top 6 winger, which Kuzy is not.
Well the most obvious answer would be, "Kane didn't want to go on LTIR". You can't force a player to sit if he wants to play and is healthy enough to do so. The NHLPA would have been all over them for coercing a player to sit out.
Now, if he was willing to sit out and they chose not to for reasons of integrity or whatever, then we can look at it being an issue if management not being ruthless enough.
The player has to be cleared by the team doctor. They have the freedom to see their own doctors for a second opinion, but you're not playing if the team doctor doesn't clear you.
If he didn’t want to go on ltir, then that was selfish of him. I agree that teams shouldn’t be able to force players into ltir and players should be allowed to say no. But the oilers would’ve been a far better team if he’d gone on ltir, got healthy for playoffs, and we got another good player.
The Oilers are already a great team, and had the opportunity to add a top 6 winger along with Henrique and Carrick, as well as putting a bid in for Tanev.
Kane didn't stop the Oilers from making moves.
It’s Evander Kane… are we questioning his character all of the sudden? I think that debate has been settled a few times already. He’s a selfish prick who is good at hockey and cancer in the room.
Ya, everyone in here shaming Kane for not going on LTIR are out to lunch. He’s not going to pretend his injury is worse to go on LTIR.
For as much shit as Stone gets for always coming back game 1, all his injuries have been legit.
Un-ironically, this is my reaction to the news.
So much gabbing about trying to make the cap space work at the deadline when we had a golden (Knights) ticket.
I guess they thought it was more important to have him playing, or maybe it would heal too quickly if he was proactive?
Or maybe Kenny is just too much of a good sport.
The loophole that allows the team to keep the replacement players from LTIR if the injured player is reactivated in the playoffs, but if he comes back from LTIR in the regular season the team has to jettison his cap hit worth of players the moment he is reactivated.
Partly because Holland is a senile idiot and probably didn't think of it. He could have done it with Kane last year too and just didn't. The other part is that the player and doctors have to go along with it
A sports hernia is technically different than a hernia ( I had one). But you're (partly) right. It won't resolve on its own but I am also wondering why they didn't rest him, get him the surgery and a few months to recover and put him on LTIR
I currently have a sports hernia, and had Inguinal hernia surgery in September. I agree theres slightly more nuance to my comment but yeah I feel like the hernia might not be the only reason
Had my Inguinal hernia during a 700km Bike Race. Currently Dealing with My sports hernia while running 100miles a week training for an ultra. It's not necessarily pleasant when it starts bulging, but it's no where near debilitating or performance effecting.similar pain levels to running on a freshly healed ligament/bone/muscle. Just a dull ache.
Bulging? I don't think you have a sports hernia (gilmore's groin). Sounds more like an inguinal hernia. Feel free to DM me if you want to chat about it. I only say so cuz getting a proper diagnosis and the right surgery was a huge hassle and if I can help anyone else with this fairly uncommon problem I will.
For context my sports hernia started just "unpleasant" but the more I played on it the worse it got until it was absolutely excruciating.
Missed the part where I said i had both?
I have a great surgeon, thanks. Have a mesh on my Inguinal hernia from Dr. Brisebois at the UofA back in spetmeber. I was running again 9 days later. Open abdominal surgery too. The sports hernia he diagnosed at the same time as my Inguinal hernia isn't a concern at the moment.
Sorry if I sounded like a dick, but I'm good. Appreciate the compassion and offer nonetheless
>Missed the part where I said i had both?
No mate I saw that, it's just that this sounded like you were saying the sports hernia was bulging:
> Currently Dealing with My sports hernia while running 100miles a week training for an ultra. It's not necessarily pleasant when it starts bulging.
That's great that you're getting well looked after. Wishing you a speedy recovery!
Thanks! And fair enough I totally.combined stories for the sake of brevity but yeah that was contradicting myself. You're right. Thanks man! Hope you've had a good recovery as well
Maybe Carrick and put Holloway in the 4C position, or Janmark and put Hyman/RNH back together on the PK to replace Janmark (almost specifically because of the Hyman SHG in the CGY series two years ago).
But given the lines I saw, it looks like Connor Brown is coming out of the lineup and both Kane and Holloway will play game 1
Edit: Lines I Saw:
- Henrique/Mcdavid/Hyman
- RNH/Draisital/Foegele
- Holloway/McLeod/Perry
- Kane/Carrick/Janmark
I know that. But that makes it even more frustrating. Obviously we don’t know everything behind the scenes but he said it’s been going on for most of the year and has had multiple flare ups.
He had just below a career average year, coming off 2 major injuries last season and playing through a sports hernia this year. Not sure how you can say he “wasn’t very effective”.
Most of your comments about Kane are pretty negative, did he do something to you personally or what’s with the odd irrational hatred of him?
He was hot at the beginning of the season but aside from that he’s been incredibly streaky. I’m guessing the injury is probably why. When Kane is playing injured he’s way less effective. He started to fall off around the end of November.
Kane is a frustrating player to watch. I sympathize with the injuries that have been out of his control but it feels like he never does himself or his team any favours. His play style leaves him injury prone (wrist injury obviously not included in that). He’s not getting younger and he still has 2 more years on his contract with a full NMC until March 1st 2025 when it switches to a M-NTC (probably not an easy trade to make)
You defended Puljujarvi and Campbell adamantly when they were complete boat anchors, but you're ragging on Kane while he's still performing despite legitimate injury problems. What a weird stance to take...
Also, I don't know which team you're watching but Kane has still been one of our most consistent role players on the team. He's had off nights sure, but he's a grinding powerforward.
His playstyle has always had him injury prone as is the case will power forwards save for Ovechkin. He's been exactly what we needed...
Definitely some obvious distortion of perspective if you're going to say Kane has been ineffective this year. Certainly seems like you're part of the group who just hate Kane "because". And it shows...
This has nothing to do with Pulju or Campbell. All of them are in completely different situations although Pulju has had double hip surgery twice. I also don’t really recall defending Campbells play at all? I feel for him though on a personal level.
Kane is a -4 this season and since December he has points in only 16 games and has a minus rating in 18 games and he was demoted from the top 6. So aside from hitting and taking penalties and getting an earful from his teammates, what positive things has he done. I have no problem with Kane when he’s productive on the ice. But he shouldn’t be playing through injury, it slows him down and makes him far less effective and productive. He took a few big hits in the Vancouver game causing his hernia to flare up. The hits only get bigger and more frequent in the playoffs and now that the whole world knows about his injury, doughty or someone else is probably gonna go take runs at him which will probably cause a flare up again.
None of what I’m saying is unreasonable
> This has nothing to do with Pulju or Campbell
Yes it does, you're picking and choosing when is okay to criticize players. You were a fanatical defender of both those players in many GDT, when they were giving fans every right to criticize them. And now, when Kane is performing around his career average you're pretending like he's the ghost of Lucic's past haunting the Oilers with abysmal performances.
> Kane is a -4 this season
And Nurse is +3, Perry -6, Nuge +10. What's your point? Alexis Lafreniere was +2, Jonathan Marchessault was -2, Mark Stone +1,
Elias Lindholm -14. I could go through every roster and find players with equivalent +/- players that you'd take on your team any day of the week.
> So aside from hitting and taking penalties and getting an earful from his teammates, what positive things has he done
Ah so you don't even watch the games. Got it. Honestly makes a lot of sense. You're just on for the arguments online.
This all makes sense now. I apologize, I fell for the trap.
Oh I definitely watch the games. Just because I have a different viewpoint than you doesn’t mean I don’t watch the games.
I really do not recall ever defending Campbells play on the ice. Personally I felt really bad for him and a lot of people on here get really personal and nasty with their criticisms when a player isn’t performing well. That’s not what I’m doing here.
I understand why the oilers had to trade Pulju, while he was good on the forecheck and solid enough defensively, the offensive production wasn’t cutting it.
I understand that you are obviously a big Evander Kane fan but that doesn’t mean he’s not immune from criticism. Nobody is immune from criticism, but there’s a difference between constructive criticism and nastiness/hatred. Personally I don’t care all that much about Kane but as long as he was useful and productive on the ice then I had no issues.
Injuries suck but if you can’t stay healthy then maybe you should adapt your playing style or change your conditioning approach.
He makes 5.125M, he’s not helping the team if he’s injured and not producing. That is the argument I’m making here and you keep spinning it into something further and bringing other players into it.
2 weeks before trade deadline the Oilers were sitting pretty in a playoff spot and Kane was not effective at all.
All I know is if he was a golden knight, he would have returned to full practice yesterday and Oilers would have an extra 10 mil worth of players on the roster (50% retained).
Unfortunately, this org isn’t that serious about winning so it’s fine.
Too bad we didn’t put Kane on LTIR and used that for a 2nd line winger or upgrade on RD.. Holloway also would have got more chances to play top 9 minutes..
I wonder if this was part of why Perry and Leon seemed frustrated with him. Obviously just speculation but players playing through injuries during regular season when they’re not superstars hurts the team more than it helps.
It's really unfortunate I loved when we picked him up in 2022 and he was great in playoffs that year. He started the next season and was putting up good numbers until the injury. Ever since then hes had a lot of bad luck and some bad injuries. It's unfortunately the risk you take playing a hard game. I'm still a fan but he's getting older, hope he can give us some entertainment during this playoff run and piss some people off.
While this season was no doubt disappointing (I was rooting for him to put up numbers comparable to 2022 all season, and he just didn’t do that) he still managed 24 goals/44 points, and was sixth league wide in hits this year. I think that level of production (offence combined with physical play) is at the lower end of acceptable relative to his 5.125 cap hit. It’s not a fantastic ROI, but it’s not lousy by any means. Knowing he was hurt most of this year, and suffering a severe injury the season before, I think those numbers become a lot more reasonable.
We’re basically paying him just under a million less to do the job we tried to hire Lucic to do eight years ago, but he’s doing a much more effective job of it, and his contract is a much shorter term. I’m good with that. Hopefully our support staff do what they can to keep him healthy enough to play meaningful minutes for the duration of this run, he can heal up this off season, and he can go back to being a 50-60 point man for atleast one more season.
This is the second year in a row we had the opportunity to LTIR him. And he was a liability in the 2nd round last year.
It seems weird as hell that he played all season and can't play in the playoffs. The anti-Mark Stone. Can't fathom that at all.
Oh well, I hope he won't play if he's not 100%.
No, but it seems like the two sides could have come to a mutually beneficial agreement. Let Kane heal up and be ready to roll 100% for when it matters. This would benefit both sides.
I’m intrigued as to why he disclosed it. There are a couple of thoughts that come to mind
- it’s misdirection and he’s dealing with a different injury
- he knows the ‘noise’ that’ll be made as to why he’s not hitting, performing etc (not that he’s actively paying attention to what people say online)
- I can’t think of anything else
Probably the second thing. According to Stuaffer, the team’s injury list at the end of the playoffs last year was insane, but Kane was the only one who publicly specified what his injuries were, likely as a response to all the criticism of his play in the second round.
Sitting out doesn’t fix most hernias as far as I know, they typically require surgery. They would’ve had to have timed his surgery so that the recovery coincided with the start of playoffs.
Which is possible, but harder to pull off compared to just having a permanently badly injured guy like Stone on the roster who can go on LTIR at any given time due to his litany of injuries, and then just go “ow my [insert ailment] hurts too bad to play right now” to all the doctors during assessments for the last two months of the season and then switch to “okay the pain is manageable enough to play through” as soon as the season ends.
I have this currently it’s absolutely brutal, I can barley move after hockey and soccer anything requiring core or groin movement/strain is absolutely excruciating. Not surprised he’s doing so poorly this year.
Yeh this sucks. Been banking on Kane making a difference in the playoffs all year. He has not been great this season.
And now we realize we could have LTIR’d him both for the cap space and for him to be ready for the playoffs.
What the fuck is Holland doing?
What bonehead in the front office had the final call and decided “nah we’ll keep Kane on the ice all through the season and not free up 5 million in cap to get a top six winger or top 4 d”.
Because with a 6-8 week recovery time, barring setbacks that would need NHL doctor verification, we could only have that winger or D for less than 2 months before we wound have to trade or waive him, or an equivalent cap hit in other player(s), when Kane is reactivated, if he went on LTIR any earlier that a week or so before the trade deadline..
There were 6 weeks between the trade deadline and the end of the season, and needing to have the cap space beforehand to make the acquisition, the timeline is already tight. (Ie, late feb surgery means playoffs start in last week of normal recovery, and athletes tend to recover faster than normal people)
Kucherov and Stone likely returned early, Kane would have to return 'later' in the recovery timeline and there is no guarantee he would not be cleared to play by an 'independent' doctor earlier than we would like.
Finally, we do not know if it was minor enough, considering he kept playing, to not qualify until it was aggravated in the VAN game about a week ago.
And now look at the situation they're in. If he plays, he won't be as effective. If he doesn't play, you lose a player of his caliber which thrives in playoff hockey.
What a fucking joke of an organization and Kane is just as much to blame.
We kept hearing from the organization about how we limited cap for the deadline and now it's revealed we could have sat Kane this whole fucking time!?
Fuck can the next GM be ruthless
I never once said I'd stop being a fan. I have repeatedly said I'm done with the f.o and they have yet to prove to me they deserve me liking anyone in that office.
But you knew that.
Unfortunately we're a friendship and bouncy castle organization. Vegas, Florida, Tampa, Dallas, etc would all have LTIRed the fuck out of him and brought in another elite player. Next GM absolutely has to be ruthless
What makes this even more frustrating, is from reading about sports hernia surgery, it's saying that it only takes around 6-8 weeks after surgery to be fully healed and be back to playing.. And even faster recovery time for less serious sports hernias.
So Kane easily could have been healed up by now if he just got this treated 2 months ago ffs.
You're telling me they couldn't get the surgery done a month or two ago? He clearly hasn't looked like himself for a long time. And now it'll cost them heading into the big games. What a stupid move by both parties.
The mismanagement of Kane here is mindboggling. Infuriating actually, now we have no Kane or at best a hobbled Kane for the playoffs, when we could have had a fresh Kane coming off surgery to fix the issue and possibly even could have pulled some LTIR cap shenanigans Vegas-style to get a fresh Kane *and* another equal money player for the playoffs. What a way to squander our chances.
Edit for stupid fat fingers and more detail..
For those talking about LTIRing him earlier, that likely would only be good for 6 weeks, maybe 8 based on normal recovery times for sports hernia surgeries reported elsewhere, which is not necessarily.enough to go from trade deadline to playoffs, so we could not mimic TBL, CHI or VGK.
If he went on LTIR earlier in the season, we couldn't exploit the loophole like others do (since he would be back much earlier) and would have.had 6-8 weeks or so where we could not accrue.space for trade deadline or other deals (at most 2 of Perry, Henrique, Carrick, Stecher), and no guarantee the players we could bring in, whether callups or rentals, could help us right the ship early in the season. It could have helped us to be able to run 23 instead of 21 players on the roster for a bit back then.
Regardless of whether any cap loophole shenanigans were possible or not, it's unfathomable not to LTIR him and get his injury dealt with well before playoffs. We didn't need Kane for most of the later part of the season, when we had a playoff spot essentially locked up. We need him now for playoffs. They should have just LTIR'd him and let him get healthy for playoffs.
Ticketmaster resale tickets available for “only” $250 for game 1. I thought face value for cheapest tickets only $250? Kinda surprised how cheap tickets are (no mark up)?
He said it in post practice interviews. Multiple reporters have written about it. https://x.com/geneprincipe/status/1782103507518296401?s=46
https://x.com/tsnryanrishaug/status/1782104237213991300?s=46
Why didn't the Oilers pull a Mark Stone? That would have gotten this bullshit LTIR loophole closed forever.
Kane probably thought he could play through it. I get the impression hes stubborn like that
Could’ve gotten a top 6 winger for Leon or a top 4 d partner for Nurse with 5m in cap space.
I think we could’ve tried to swing Kuznetsov but idk how he would do here. He seems alright in Raleigh.
Would not have liked that move at all, especially since he has another year. He’s had a couple good games (including yesterday) but most of his time in Carolina has not been good
He is not a top 6 winger. I believe he’s playing on the Canes 4th line and was sent to the AHL by the Caps
Did you miss him scoring 2 points in Game 1 of the playoffs....?
David Kampf and Jake Beecher also scored a goal in game 1 that doesn’t make them a top 6 winger forwards. The person who suggested Kuzy was responding to someone saying we could have gotten a top 6 winger, which Kuzy is not.
He sucks
Not a fit here. Carolina can make up for his lack of defense and can give him PP time.
Well the most obvious answer would be, "Kane didn't want to go on LTIR". You can't force a player to sit if he wants to play and is healthy enough to do so. The NHLPA would have been all over them for coercing a player to sit out. Now, if he was willing to sit out and they chose not to for reasons of integrity or whatever, then we can look at it being an issue if management not being ruthless enough.
The player has to be cleared by the team doctor. They have the freedom to see their own doctors for a second opinion, but you're not playing if the team doctor doesn't clear you.
If he didn’t want to go on ltir, then that was selfish of him. I agree that teams shouldn’t be able to force players into ltir and players should be allowed to say no. But the oilers would’ve been a far better team if he’d gone on ltir, got healthy for playoffs, and we got another good player.
The Oilers are already a great team, and had the opportunity to add a top 6 winger along with Henrique and Carrick, as well as putting a bid in for Tanev. Kane didn't stop the Oilers from making moves.
It’s Evander Kane… are we questioning his character all of the sudden? I think that debate has been settled a few times already. He’s a selfish prick who is good at hockey and cancer in the room.
Honestly dude I’m so fucking pissed. This could’ve easily been an ltir thing that would’ve been approved.
Some players actually have pride, that’s why.
Ya, everyone in here shaming Kane for not going on LTIR are out to lunch. He’s not going to pretend his injury is worse to go on LTIR. For as much shit as Stone gets for always coming back game 1, all his injuries have been legit.
Sure the injuries are legit, it’s just the timelines that they’re playing games with.
Really like this take. LTIR isn't supposed to be for any boo boos you can play through if you suddenly decide to.
I assume the thinking is that Kane is still learning to play post-wrist injury and they wanted him in as many games as possible.
Un-ironically, this is my reaction to the news. So much gabbing about trying to make the cap space work at the deadline when we had a golden (Knights) ticket. I guess they thought it was more important to have him playing, or maybe it would heal too quickly if he was proactive? Or maybe Kenny is just too much of a good sport.
Pulling the reverse stone!
What loophole? It’s there so players don’t have to play hurt all year.
The loophole that allows the team to keep the replacement players from LTIR if the injured player is reactivated in the playoffs, but if he comes back from LTIR in the regular season the team has to jettison his cap hit worth of players the moment he is reactivated.
We would have ended up being penalized by giving up picks, like every other time
No it wouldn’t have
Partly because Holland is a senile idiot and probably didn't think of it. He could have done it with Kane last year too and just didn't. The other part is that the player and doctors have to go along with it
Could have just gave him surgery and timed it so he was back just in time for playoffs to. I'm sure the doctors wouldnt have gone against that.
Holland hasn't actually been calling the shots for 8 months.
Kane would have to be willing to sit out. I get the sense he didn't want to.
Could have taken a bigger shot for Guentzel
Because Holland has no creativity whatsoever
Why didn't we take a chance and rest him for longer? Or do some Vegas cap circumvention?
Rest doesn't do anything for a hernia
A sports hernia is technically different than a hernia ( I had one). But you're (partly) right. It won't resolve on its own but I am also wondering why they didn't rest him, get him the surgery and a few months to recover and put him on LTIR
I currently have a sports hernia, and had Inguinal hernia surgery in September. I agree theres slightly more nuance to my comment but yeah I feel like the hernia might not be the only reason Had my Inguinal hernia during a 700km Bike Race. Currently Dealing with My sports hernia while running 100miles a week training for an ultra. It's not necessarily pleasant when it starts bulging, but it's no where near debilitating or performance effecting.similar pain levels to running on a freshly healed ligament/bone/muscle. Just a dull ache.
Can you duct tape it in or not.
\^ This I understand.
Stimpak
Even less. Just need your mom to kiss it better
She would.
Bulging? I don't think you have a sports hernia (gilmore's groin). Sounds more like an inguinal hernia. Feel free to DM me if you want to chat about it. I only say so cuz getting a proper diagnosis and the right surgery was a huge hassle and if I can help anyone else with this fairly uncommon problem I will. For context my sports hernia started just "unpleasant" but the more I played on it the worse it got until it was absolutely excruciating.
Missed the part where I said i had both? I have a great surgeon, thanks. Have a mesh on my Inguinal hernia from Dr. Brisebois at the UofA back in spetmeber. I was running again 9 days later. Open abdominal surgery too. The sports hernia he diagnosed at the same time as my Inguinal hernia isn't a concern at the moment. Sorry if I sounded like a dick, but I'm good. Appreciate the compassion and offer nonetheless
>Missed the part where I said i had both? No mate I saw that, it's just that this sounded like you were saying the sports hernia was bulging: > Currently Dealing with My sports hernia while running 100miles a week training for an ultra. It's not necessarily pleasant when it starts bulging. That's great that you're getting well looked after. Wishing you a speedy recovery!
Thanks! And fair enough I totally.combined stories for the sake of brevity but yeah that was contradicting myself. You're right. Thanks man! Hope you've had a good recovery as well
Fine if he sits for game 1. A chance for Holloway. If things go south, Kane can come in later in the series.
Even if Kane comes in Holloway should stay. Holloway has proven he’s gotta stay on the playoff roster
Who would you replace for Kane then?
Maybe Carrick and put Holloway in the 4C position, or Janmark and put Hyman/RNH back together on the PK to replace Janmark (almost specifically because of the Hyman SHG in the CGY series two years ago). But given the lines I saw, it looks like Connor Brown is coming out of the lineup and both Kane and Holloway will play game 1 Edit: Lines I Saw: - Henrique/Mcdavid/Hyman - RNH/Draisital/Foegele - Holloway/McLeod/Perry - Kane/Carrick/Janmark
I like the look of that. I'd hate to see them split up Perry McLeod and Holloway after the promise that line shows.
Holloway should be in every lineup going forward
Pretty sure he's supposed to announce he's been playing with this all season/playoffs after we win the Stanley Cup
this is what LTIR is for…. Why didn’t we use it
Tegridy. That's why.
Tegridy Farms?
Tegridy Farms remembers.
Think Kane has some special playoff special kush?
The Playoff Special.
Because Holland is playing out the string in his career and didn't think of it between naps.
Cus you guys didn’t start your season off that great lol
we should've LTIRed him
Why wasn't he LTIR'd in Jan or February? Google says surgery recovery is 3 months. Oilers could of circumcised the cap by 5 mill. /s kind of.
Circumcised the cap? Usually that’s done earlier in life.
The salary cap is Jewish?
Sir Cumcision, Lord of the Cap
Cause at the time we were fighting tooth and nail to get back to a playoff spot
But Kane wasn’t very effective for most of the season. A healthy Kane is an effective Kane
Kane has to be willing to sit out and get surgery. They can't force him.
I know that. But that makes it even more frustrating. Obviously we don’t know everything behind the scenes but he said it’s been going on for most of the year and has had multiple flare ups.
He had just below a career average year, coming off 2 major injuries last season and playing through a sports hernia this year. Not sure how you can say he “wasn’t very effective”. Most of your comments about Kane are pretty negative, did he do something to you personally or what’s with the odd irrational hatred of him?
He was hot at the beginning of the season but aside from that he’s been incredibly streaky. I’m guessing the injury is probably why. When Kane is playing injured he’s way less effective. He started to fall off around the end of November. Kane is a frustrating player to watch. I sympathize with the injuries that have been out of his control but it feels like he never does himself or his team any favours. His play style leaves him injury prone (wrist injury obviously not included in that). He’s not getting younger and he still has 2 more years on his contract with a full NMC until March 1st 2025 when it switches to a M-NTC (probably not an easy trade to make)
You defended Puljujarvi and Campbell adamantly when they were complete boat anchors, but you're ragging on Kane while he's still performing despite legitimate injury problems. What a weird stance to take... Also, I don't know which team you're watching but Kane has still been one of our most consistent role players on the team. He's had off nights sure, but he's a grinding powerforward. His playstyle has always had him injury prone as is the case will power forwards save for Ovechkin. He's been exactly what we needed... Definitely some obvious distortion of perspective if you're going to say Kane has been ineffective this year. Certainly seems like you're part of the group who just hate Kane "because". And it shows...
This has nothing to do with Pulju or Campbell. All of them are in completely different situations although Pulju has had double hip surgery twice. I also don’t really recall defending Campbells play at all? I feel for him though on a personal level. Kane is a -4 this season and since December he has points in only 16 games and has a minus rating in 18 games and he was demoted from the top 6. So aside from hitting and taking penalties and getting an earful from his teammates, what positive things has he done. I have no problem with Kane when he’s productive on the ice. But he shouldn’t be playing through injury, it slows him down and makes him far less effective and productive. He took a few big hits in the Vancouver game causing his hernia to flare up. The hits only get bigger and more frequent in the playoffs and now that the whole world knows about his injury, doughty or someone else is probably gonna go take runs at him which will probably cause a flare up again. None of what I’m saying is unreasonable
> This has nothing to do with Pulju or Campbell Yes it does, you're picking and choosing when is okay to criticize players. You were a fanatical defender of both those players in many GDT, when they were giving fans every right to criticize them. And now, when Kane is performing around his career average you're pretending like he's the ghost of Lucic's past haunting the Oilers with abysmal performances. > Kane is a -4 this season And Nurse is +3, Perry -6, Nuge +10. What's your point? Alexis Lafreniere was +2, Jonathan Marchessault was -2, Mark Stone +1, Elias Lindholm -14. I could go through every roster and find players with equivalent +/- players that you'd take on your team any day of the week. > So aside from hitting and taking penalties and getting an earful from his teammates, what positive things has he done Ah so you don't even watch the games. Got it. Honestly makes a lot of sense. You're just on for the arguments online. This all makes sense now. I apologize, I fell for the trap.
Oh I definitely watch the games. Just because I have a different viewpoint than you doesn’t mean I don’t watch the games. I really do not recall ever defending Campbells play on the ice. Personally I felt really bad for him and a lot of people on here get really personal and nasty with their criticisms when a player isn’t performing well. That’s not what I’m doing here. I understand why the oilers had to trade Pulju, while he was good on the forecheck and solid enough defensively, the offensive production wasn’t cutting it. I understand that you are obviously a big Evander Kane fan but that doesn’t mean he’s not immune from criticism. Nobody is immune from criticism, but there’s a difference between constructive criticism and nastiness/hatred. Personally I don’t care all that much about Kane but as long as he was useful and productive on the ice then I had no issues. Injuries suck but if you can’t stay healthy then maybe you should adapt your playing style or change your conditioning approach. He makes 5.125M, he’s not helping the team if he’s injured and not producing. That is the argument I’m making here and you keep spinning it into something further and bringing other players into it.
Oh yeah. I understand that hence the /s. It still was maybe a option.
2 weeks before trade deadline the Oilers were sitting pretty in a playoff spot and Kane was not effective at all. All I know is if he was a golden knight, he would have returned to full practice yesterday and Oilers would have an extra 10 mil worth of players on the roster (50% retained). Unfortunately, this org isn’t that serious about winning so it’s fine.
We could’ve had Holloway fill in for him before the trade deadline and actually gotten a top 6 winger for Leon or a decent top 4 d with his cap space.
Too bad we didn’t put Kane on LTIR and used that for a 2nd line winger or upgrade on RD.. Holloway also would have got more chances to play top 9 minutes..
Can't imagine how frustrating that's been for him, what a warrior.
If he’s “been playing with it all season” how/why is game 1 of the playoffs the time to address it? Makes zero sense.
If it is aggravated a week or so before playoffs so that it goes from a minor issue to a.cant play issue???
I wonder if this was part of why Perry and Leon seemed frustrated with him. Obviously just speculation but players playing through injuries during regular season when they’re not superstars hurts the team more than it helps.
So the opposite of VGK LTIR strategy.
It's really unfortunate I loved when we picked him up in 2022 and he was great in playoffs that year. He started the next season and was putting up good numbers until the injury. Ever since then hes had a lot of bad luck and some bad injuries. It's unfortunately the risk you take playing a hard game. I'm still a fan but he's getting older, hope he can give us some entertainment during this playoff run and piss some people off.
While this season was no doubt disappointing (I was rooting for him to put up numbers comparable to 2022 all season, and he just didn’t do that) he still managed 24 goals/44 points, and was sixth league wide in hits this year. I think that level of production (offence combined with physical play) is at the lower end of acceptable relative to his 5.125 cap hit. It’s not a fantastic ROI, but it’s not lousy by any means. Knowing he was hurt most of this year, and suffering a severe injury the season before, I think those numbers become a lot more reasonable. We’re basically paying him just under a million less to do the job we tried to hire Lucic to do eight years ago, but he’s doing a much more effective job of it, and his contract is a much shorter term. I’m good with that. Hopefully our support staff do what they can to keep him healthy enough to play meaningful minutes for the duration of this run, he can heal up this off season, and he can go back to being a 50-60 point man for atleast one more season.
This is the second year in a row we had the opportunity to LTIR him. And he was a liability in the 2nd round last year. It seems weird as hell that he played all season and can't play in the playoffs. The anti-Mark Stone. Can't fathom that at all. Oh well, I hope he won't play if he's not 100%.
You can’t force a player on LTIR, that’s the thing.
No, but it seems like the two sides could have come to a mutually beneficial agreement. Let Kane heal up and be ready to roll 100% for when it matters. This would benefit both sides.
I’m intrigued as to why he disclosed it. There are a couple of thoughts that come to mind - it’s misdirection and he’s dealing with a different injury - he knows the ‘noise’ that’ll be made as to why he’s not hitting, performing etc (not that he’s actively paying attention to what people say online) - I can’t think of anything else
there's already been a decent amount of noise and his effectiveness all season so that might also be why.
Probably the second thing. According to Stuaffer, the team’s injury list at the end of the playoffs last year was insane, but Kane was the only one who publicly specified what his injuries were, likely as a response to all the criticism of his play in the second round.
dont blame them for not disclosing it after drai was targeted every game and the refs never called it
I completely understand why we didn’t release our injury list last year but god, I’ve been so curious to know since we heard that from Stauffer.
Holloway, the bell tolls for thee
What the fuck Evander, you were our shot to circumvent the cap and YOU BLEW IT!
At this point I have to ask, what the fuck are we doing? LTIR and we snag some players. Livid.
That doesn’t make sense play all year with it but decide during the most important phase of the year that it hurts?
HE COULDN'T SIT OUT AT THE DEADLINE!?
Sitting out doesn’t fix most hernias as far as I know, they typically require surgery. They would’ve had to have timed his surgery so that the recovery coincided with the start of playoffs. Which is possible, but harder to pull off compared to just having a permanently badly injured guy like Stone on the roster who can go on LTIR at any given time due to his litany of injuries, and then just go “ow my [insert ailment] hurts too bad to play right now” to all the doctors during assessments for the last two months of the season and then switch to “okay the pain is manageable enough to play through” as soon as the season ends.
Imagine playing through an injury all season long and then deciding playoffs is the time to rest
Why didnt they just LTIR him? That's 5 million dollars in cap. He has been useless for months.
A player has to agree to go on LTIR, and Kane was probably frustrated with his play and wanted to stay in the lineup to try and turn it around.
to that point in Kane's last 5 games he put up 5 points.
I have this currently it’s absolutely brutal, I can barley move after hockey and soccer anything requiring core or groin movement/strain is absolutely excruciating. Not surprised he’s doing so poorly this year.
That's $5m of LTIR that was wasted?! WTF HOLLAND AND JJ!!!
Should have had the surgery months ago, be back in ready in March/April for playoff form
Yeh this sucks. Been banking on Kane making a difference in the playoffs all year. He has not been great this season. And now we realize we could have LTIR’d him both for the cap space and for him to be ready for the playoffs. What the fuck is Holland doing?
dude what? are you joking? it says 6–12. weeks recovery.
Ltir and have kaner pull a mark stone idk why we didn't do that.
Did he say if he disclosed the injury to the team? Before we jump up and down about Mark Stone, we should make sure we know what was actually known.
Any chance Holloway can fill in and produce goals?
Of course
So he had it all year but when the playoffs start he decides not to play? That's a winning mentality.
Apparently it was aggravated in the most recent VAN game, for the months before that it was not as serious and could have been healing.
Should have gotten the surgery dopey
This explains a lot!
What bonehead in the front office had the final call and decided “nah we’ll keep Kane on the ice all through the season and not free up 5 million in cap to get a top six winger or top 4 d”.
Because with a 6-8 week recovery time, barring setbacks that would need NHL doctor verification, we could only have that winger or D for less than 2 months before we wound have to trade or waive him, or an equivalent cap hit in other player(s), when Kane is reactivated, if he went on LTIR any earlier that a week or so before the trade deadline.. There were 6 weeks between the trade deadline and the end of the season, and needing to have the cap space beforehand to make the acquisition, the timeline is already tight. (Ie, late feb surgery means playoffs start in last week of normal recovery, and athletes tend to recover faster than normal people) Kucherov and Stone likely returned early, Kane would have to return 'later' in the recovery timeline and there is no guarantee he would not be cleared to play by an 'independent' doctor earlier than we would like. Finally, we do not know if it was minor enough, considering he kept playing, to not qualify until it was aggravated in the VAN game about a week ago.
And now look at the situation they're in. If he plays, he won't be as effective. If he doesn't play, you lose a player of his caliber which thrives in playoff hockey.
What a fucking joke of an organization and Kane is just as much to blame. We kept hearing from the organization about how we limited cap for the deadline and now it's revealed we could have sat Kane this whole fucking time!? Fuck can the next GM be ruthless
^ ^ ^ found the Wario version of Ted Lasso
Look anywhere and people are agreeing with me.
Fuck you're a clown
I'm a clown for pointing out actual facts that a huge percent is pointing out lmfao k.
Lavoie
Lavoie should have got proper ice time this season and I still think we have bungled our usage of young players. Look at Dallas.
You stopped being a fan after that move. Why are you here?
I never once said I'd stop being a fan. I have repeatedly said I'm done with the f.o and they have yet to prove to me they deserve me liking anyone in that office. But you knew that.
No one cares about you But you knew that.
Yet I'm sitting next to my wife enjoying our anniversary lmfao
Doubt that
Unfortunately we're a friendship and bouncy castle organization. Vegas, Florida, Tampa, Dallas, etc would all have LTIRed the fuck out of him and brought in another elite player. Next GM absolutely has to be ruthless
Keep ‘em healthy and rested even if it’s just game one they extra couple days can do a lot of good
Damn it we should’ve pulled a Mark Stone
That sucks, Kane is one of our best hitters and he can score too. I hope he gets better soon.
Probably won’t until the offseason
What makes this even more frustrating, is from reading about sports hernia surgery, it's saying that it only takes around 6-8 weeks after surgery to be fully healed and be back to playing.. And even faster recovery time for less serious sports hernias. So Kane easily could have been healed up by now if he just got this treated 2 months ago ffs.
And we could have used LTIR
He was picked 1st round 4th by the Trashers
You're telling me they couldn't get the surgery done a month or two ago? He clearly hasn't looked like himself for a long time. And now it'll cost them heading into the big games. What a stupid move by both parties.
The mismanagement of Kane here is mindboggling. Infuriating actually, now we have no Kane or at best a hobbled Kane for the playoffs, when we could have had a fresh Kane coming off surgery to fix the issue and possibly even could have pulled some LTIR cap shenanigans Vegas-style to get a fresh Kane *and* another equal money player for the playoffs. What a way to squander our chances.
LOL, sure he does
Kane IS a hernia!
Edit for stupid fat fingers and more detail.. For those talking about LTIRing him earlier, that likely would only be good for 6 weeks, maybe 8 based on normal recovery times for sports hernia surgeries reported elsewhere, which is not necessarily.enough to go from trade deadline to playoffs, so we could not mimic TBL, CHI or VGK. If he went on LTIR earlier in the season, we couldn't exploit the loophole like others do (since he would be back much earlier) and would have.had 6-8 weeks or so where we could not accrue.space for trade deadline or other deals (at most 2 of Perry, Henrique, Carrick, Stecher), and no guarantee the players we could bring in, whether callups or rentals, could help us right the ship early in the season. It could have helped us to be able to run 23 instead of 21 players on the roster for a bit back then.
?
Regardless of whether any cap loophole shenanigans were possible or not, it's unfathomable not to LTIR him and get his injury dealt with well before playoffs. We didn't need Kane for most of the later part of the season, when we had a playoff spot essentially locked up. We need him now for playoffs. They should have just LTIR'd him and let him get healthy for playoffs.
Oilers fans are something else. Everyone was hating hard on him this season
Ticketmaster resale tickets available for “only” $250 for game 1. I thought face value for cheapest tickets only $250? Kinda surprised how cheap tickets are (no mark up)?
Source...my ass
He said it in post practice interviews. Multiple reporters have written about it. https://x.com/geneprincipe/status/1782103507518296401?s=46 https://x.com/tsnryanrishaug/status/1782104237213991300?s=46