Skinner has been made a healthy scratch six times so far this season, all coming in the six weeks before the 4 Nations break.  When he has played, he hasn’t been the most productive, notching 10 goals and 10 assists in 49 games.  For context, the 32-year-old had managed at least 24 tallies in each of the last three seasons.  Playing time has been harder to come by as well as he’s logging just 12:29 per night, by far the lowest ATOI of his career.

Given that Skinner’s fit hasn’t been the best so far, the fact that Edmonton doesn’t have a lot of cap flexibility, and the fact that their current GM isn’t the player who signed Skinner to this contract, some have wondered if Edmonton might try to cut bait with Skinner.  However, GM Stan Bowman recently told Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic (subscription link) that he doesn’t envision that he will go to the veteran and ask him to waive his no-move clause which would seemingly scuttle any thought of a trade at this time.

Edmonton’s deadline plans will largely revolve around injured winger Evander Kane who has yet to play this season while recovering from multiple surgeries.  At the moment, they project to only have $947K in cap space at the deadline, per PuckPedia, which obviously doesn’t give them much flexibility and puts them in a spot where they’d need to clear out money to make any sort of impactful addition, hence the speculation around Skinner.

But if Kane is unable to return this season, Edmonton would be able to go into LTIR which could free up around $5MM in extra spending room (the exact amount would vary depending on how close to the cap ceiling they could get at the time of placement), thus negating the need to clear out money.  Bowman told Nugent-Bowman that there remains no update on Kane’s status but anticipates that they’ll have at least a bit of a better understanding of his recovery timeline by the time the trade deadline comes around.

For now, at least, the Oilers have to operate with very limited financial flexibility which will make adding anything of consequence at the trade deadline a challenge.  But if they do need to move money out to facilitate a move, it doesn’t appear that Skinner will be the one losing his spot.

Kane, 33, should now be considered doubtful to play at all in the regular season. The veteran power forward played through a sports hernia for a good portion of 2023-24, which ended up requiring major surgery at the beginning of training camp to repair it, as well as two torn hip adductor muscles and two torn lower abdominal muscles.

The initial prognosis was a four-month return timeline, which would have put him back in the lineup sometime around the 4 Nations Face-Off. Instead, he’ll now surely be out past the trade deadline and potentially into the postseason.

Kane’s injuries took a toll on his production in 2023-24. While his 77 games played were his most since arriving in Edmonton for the 2021-22 season, his 24 goals and 44 points worked out to 0.57 points per game – his worst since the 2015-16 campaign.

In turn, Kane saw his ice time drop from nearly 19 minutes per game in 2022-23 to 16:47 per game last year, his lowest usage since his rookie season in Atlanta in 2009-10. He added eight points and a league-high 37 PIMs in 20 postseason contests as his Oilers advanced to the Stanley Cup Final.

Crucially for Edmonton, Kane missing the rest of the regular season would allow them to keep his $5.125MM cap hit on long-term injured reserve through the trade deadline. The Oilers have done a good job staying out of LTIR throughout the year, so they should be able to take full advantage of that flexibility on deadline day and will likely be able to make a couple of adds without too much financial worry.

More from the Pacific:

• Still with the Oilers, prospect Brady Stonehouse is on the move in the OHL as Peterborough announced that they’ve acquired the winger from Ottawa. Edmonton signed the 20-year-old as an undrafted free agent back in 2023 and he is burning the first year of his entry-level deal at the junior level.  In 18 games with the 67’s prior to the swap, Stonehouse had five goals and five assists.
• The Flames are expected to have more information on how long they’ll be without forward Connor Zary on Friday, relays Sportsnet’s Eric Francis (Twitter link). The 23-year-old suffered what looked to be a serious knee injury against Anaheim on Tuesday and the belief is that he may be facing an extended absence.  After spending some time in the minors last season, Zary has been a full-timer with Calgary this season and had a solid first half before the injury, picking up 10 goals and 22 assists in his first 40 games.
• Sharks winger Nikolai Kovalenko will not play tomorrow against Utah due to an upper-body injury, notes Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now (Twitter link). The injury was sustained on Tuesday versus Vegas.  Kovalenko has fared relatively well since being acquired last month from Colorado, notching a goal and five assists in a dozen games with San Jose after tallying just eight points in 28 games with the Avs.  He’s listed as out day-to-day.

As hasty as the Oilers are to acquire a top-four defenseman they are severely limited by their salary cap space and Evander Kane’s availability for the rest of the campaign. Kane’s $5.125MM salary is currently on long-term injured reserve giving Edmonton plenty of flexibility in the present but they’ll be handcuffed if he returns for the regular season. PuckPedia gives the Oilers a deadline cap space of only $1.02MM.

Edmonton should be able to acquire any of the aforementioned trade candidates but another fish may become available closer to the deadline. It’s becoming apparent the New York Rangers are headed toward a complex roster retooling after a 5-15-0 record in their last 20 games. Does former Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox make sense for the Oilers? Both sides would have to get creative considering Fox’s $9.5MM salary for the next five years but the 2024-25 campaign is the last year on the deal without a full no-movement clause.

Depending on how aggressively both teams want to be with their respective aspirations, the Oilers could form a package with Kane’s contract, Jeff Skinner’s expiring deal, prospect Matthew Savoie, and their 2027 first-round pick. It’ll be difficult for Edmonton to reach the price of what it would take to acquire a defenseman with Fox’s stature but there are other possible candidates on the Rangers’ roster.

K’Andre Miller and Ryan Lindgren fit the mold of an ideal trade acquisition for the Oilers. They are both on expiring contracts (with the former not becoming an unrestricted free agent until after the 2026-27 season) and hold valuable roles on the penalty kill. Edmonton’s penalty kill is ranked 23rd in the league with a 76.4% success rate while New York’s sits third thanks to help from Miller and Lindgren.

Needless to say, Edmonton is on the hunt to put themselves over the top in preparation for the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs. Multiple reports indicate that it’s a matter of when, not if, the Oilers acquire a top-four defenseman to plug into their lineup.

More from around the NHL:

• Canadiens GM Kent Hughes has started calling around the league to see what trade options might be available, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic shared earlier today in a TSN Early Trading He added that they’re not interested in parting with future assets while they’re likely looking to try to match salary in a move.  Montreal has plenty of LTIR room with Carey Price on there for the full season (not to mention Patrik Laine for a couple more months) but if they intend to get below the cap and out of LTIR by the end of the year to avoid or reduce any bonus carryover penalty, they’d be wise not to take much money on.
• Jets defenseman Ville Heinola hasn’t resumed skating yet as he continues to deal with the recurrence of his ankle injury, notes Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press (Twitter link). The team is being patient with the injury after how much time he missed last year.  Heinola, a 2019 first-round pick, has been limited to just 35 NHL games over parts of four seasons despite showing plenty of offensive upside in the minors.  He was expected to make the team out of training camp but this injury derailed that opportunity.
• Calgary has activated forward Kevin Rooney off injured reserve, relays Flames Nation’s Ryan Pike (Twitter link). The 31-year-old suffered a concussion in the opening period of their season opener earlier this month.  Rooney is in his third season carrying a $1.3MM price tag but has five points in 51 games in a Flames uniform.  Their roster is now at the maximum of 23 so roster moves will be needed to activate Yegor Sharangovich and Samuel Honzek off injured reserve, both of whom skated today.

The move gives Edmonton some much-needed financial breathing room and will allow them to safely register Travis Dermott’s one-year, $775K contract. Kane’s LTIR placement gives the Oilers $5.125MM in cap room after starting the year with only $53 of space.

Things will get tricky for Edmonton once Kane returns from surgery in mid-January since his contract will be added back to the active roster. The team will still accrue cap space thanks to a separate transaction today (more on that later) but will still be in a bind when Kane returns.

Other Pacific notes:

• In the same announcement, the Oilers shared they have reassigned forwards Matthew Savoie and Cameron Wright to their AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors. The two combined for $1.811MM in cap space with the latter signing a one-year, $925K contract with the team yesterday. Coupled with the team officially signing Dermott to a one-year, $775K contract they have opened up another $1.036MM in salary cap space.
• Before the team’s first game of the regular season against the St. Louis Blues this afternoon, the Seattle Kraken named their second captain in franchise history. Forward Jordan Eberle will now don the ’C’ for Seattle and will be the first player to do so since defenseman Mark Giordano. Eberle was selected by the Kraken from the New York Islanders in the 2021 Expansion Draft and signed a two-year, $9.5MM extension with the club during the 2023-24 regular season.

All those injuries stemmed from Kane playing through a sports hernia for much of last season, including the playoffs. They didn’t limit his availability too much, costing him just 10 games combined over the course of the regular season and postseason.

They did significantly hamper his effectiveness, though. Kane’s 0.31 goals per game and 0.57 points per game were his worst rates since the 2015-16 season. He was especially diminished in the playoffs, posting four goals and eight points in 20 games while averaging under 15 minutes per night. It was a far cry from his showing just two years ago in the 2022 playoffs, where he averaged nearly 20 minutes per game for the Oilers and led the league in postseason goals with 13 despite Edmonton being eliminated in the Western Conference Final by the Avalanche.

Now, as expected, the Oilers will have the opportunity to place Kane’s $5.125MM cap hit on long-term injured reserve. However, it’s unlikely they will. It was viewed as a potential necessity a few weeks ago, but after opting not to match the offer sheets the Blues tendered for Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway and trading Cody Ceci and his $3.25MM cap hit to the Sharks, Edmonton projects to be fully cap-compliant with a 22-player roster that includes Kane, per PuckPedia.

The Oilers can place Kane on standard IR to free up a roster spot if they so choose. They enter the season with $945,833 in space, so the player they’re adding to the roster to replace Kane will need to have a cap hit equal to or lower than that amount. Potential candidates include recent PTO signee Mike Hoffman and minor-leaguers James Hamblin and Raphael Lavoie.

Sep. 13: Mark Spector of Sportsnet is reporting that Edmonton Oilers forward Evander Kane will have sports hernia surgery in the next 10 days or so. Kane has been dealing with the issue since last season and played through the pain as much as he could but eventually missed significant time in the Stanley Cup Final when he dressed in just two of the Oilers’ final seven games.

Kane played reasonably well last season, given that he played through pain for most of it. However, his 24 goals and 20 assists in 77 games represented his lowest point-per-game pace in seven years. The 31-year-old added four goals and four assists in 20 playoff games, which was also a drop from his normal production.

While Kane’s offensive numbers were below his career norms, he did play a career-low 16:47 per game during the regular season which marked his lowest total since he averaged 14:00 per game during his rookie season in 2009-10 while he was a member of the Atlanta Thrashers.

Kane’s prognosis won’t be fully known until surgery has been completed. When his recovery period is clear the Oilers should be able to figure out a plan for their salary cap situation going forward. PuckPedia estimates that Edmonton has $946K in cap space for the 2024-25 season (including Kane’s $5.125MM cap hit), however, if Kane is out longer than 24 days and 10 games then Edmonton can place him on LTIR. If that is the approach they take, the Oilers would need to keep his space available for when he is ready to suit up once again which would presumably be at some point during the regular season.

Draisaitl and teammate Connor McDavid spoke about their recent and pending record-breaking contract extensions at this week’s NHL Player Media Tour in Las Vegas. “I don’t think I necessarily pushed my contract all the way to the limit,” Draisaitl said. “I’d like to state that. But I am very happy with it. I’m content with it. I think, compared to other sports, we probably don’t get paid what we deserve or don’t get paid what they get paid, right? But that’s the sport we’re in.”

McDavid was far more coy in his responses to questions about his next contract – he’s eligible to sign an extension starting July 1, 2025 – stating he’ll do what he feels is best for his family and his chances of winning a Stanley Cup.

But Draisaitl hopes his league-record $14MM AAV is a significant step in the right direction for high-end NHL talent. “I think each one of us, if we can bump it up and get more money into hockey and get the players some higher salaries, I think every player would probably say the same and they’d all be for it,” he told Russo.

There’s more from the Oilers:

• Evander Kane is projected to be unavailable at the beginning of training camp, according to Tom Gazzola of Edmonton Sports Talk. It’s not a surprise – the team’s Bob Stauffer said last month that Kane was likely to have an undisclosed surgery and start the season on long-term injured reserve, likely related to the sports hernia he played through for a good chunk of last year. But nothing indicates he’s undergone the procedure yet, and Oilers general manager Stan Bowman said on a radio spot last week that they were hoping to have clarity on his return timeline by the end of next weekend.
• Defenseman Darnell Nurse is also likely out for the beginning of camp, per Gazzola. Gazzola says that the 29-year-old is still nursing a lingering injury he sustained during last season’s playoffs but isn’t likely to miss any regular season action. He’s been on the ice this month for informal skates but doesn’t appear ready for full contact. The Oilers will be looking for a big rebound campaign from the 2013 seventh overall pick, entering the third season of an eight-year, $74MM deal.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

• The Ducks announced (Twitter link) that third-overall pick Beckett Sennecke suffered a fractured foot during offseason training that will keep him out for six to eight weeks. Meanwhile, the team also revealed that goaltender Tomas Suchanek had successful surgery to repair a ruptured ACL and will miss six to eight months.  Sennecke was a late-riser heading into the draft with his selection coming as a surprise to many.  The injury will derail any outside chance he had at making the team but he should be good to go by the time the World Juniors come around.  Suchanek, meanwhile, posted a 2.92 GAA and a .910 SV% in 29 games with AHL San Diego last season and was in position to likely be Anaheim’s third-string option this year.  This injury likely led to today’s earlier signing of Oscar Dansk to a one-year deal.
• Earlier today, The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta relayed that the Red Wings were making progress on a long-term contract for RFA winger Lucas Raymond. Later in the day, he added (Twitter link) that Detroit and RFA Moritz Seider are also working away at a long-term pact.  The 23-year-old has been a key cog on the back end for the last three seasons, recording at least 42 points while logging over 22 minutes a night in each of them.  Detroit has over $17MM in cap room, per PuckPedia, which should be enough to get both key youngsters signed to long-term agreements.
• Back in April, it was reported that veteran winger Brad Malone would be calling it a career. It was made official today with Malone announcing it on his Twitter page.  Malone played in 217 career NHL games between Colorado, Carolina, and Edmonton, while also seeing time in a dozen AHL campaigns, spanning 552 contests.  His days in hockey aren’t over, however, as OHL Oshawa announced that they’ve hired Malone as their Player Development Coach.

PuckPedia gave a solid breakdown of how Edmonton could find its way back to salary cap compliance after the separate trades that brought Vasily Podkolzin to Alberta and sent Cody Ceci to the San Jose Sharks. The salary cap website asserts that if the Oilers place Evander Kane on long-term injured reserve to start the year, send down Troy Stecher and Derek Ryan, and call up prospect Matt Savoie to the NHL, they will be compliant to start the 2024-25 NHL season if they choose to match both offer sheets.

All things considered — this is a decent scenario for Edmonton. Savoie gives the team a low-cost option to plug into the top six and allows the team some flexibility with newcomers Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson on the wing. By moving either Skinner or Arvidsson down to the third line, Holloway could play the wing on the team’s fourth line while moving Mattias Janmark to fourth-line center in this scenario.

The team would still have seven available defensemen to choose from to start the year and Stecher likely would have been light on playing time regardless. Josh Brown and Ty Emberson could split time based on matchups leaving Edmonton’s only glaring hole at the fourth-line center position.

Edmonton is not necessarily out of the woods just yet as it’s uncertain when Kane will ultimately return from his offseason surgery. It’s expected he will be placed on LTIR to begin the season which will keep him out of the lineup for the first 10 games and 24 days of the 2024-25 NHL season. Once the season begins, however, the Oilers will again be in a situation where tough decisions must be made. The Oilers could still allow both players to walk giving them just over $6MM to start the year after placing Kane on LTIR.

It will be interesting to see how aggressive GM Bowman is in bringing back two pieces that haven’t had much opportunity with the organization up to this point. All in all, even with clearing Ceci’s salary and having a clear pathway toward cap compliance to start the year —  it will take some time for Edmonton to exit this precarious scenario.

Kane played through a good chunk of last season with a sports hernia, he revealed to reporters in April. It plagued him through the Oilers’ run to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, holding him out of five of Edmonton’s 25 playoff games. It’s unclear if today’s news is related.

The recovery from the undisclosed surgery would likely sideline him for at least the first 10 games and 24 days of the 2024-25 campaign, meaning the Oilers can place him on long-term injured reserve. Doing so would allow them to gain temporary relief from his $5.125MM cap hit, giving new general manager Stan Bowman some much-needed financial flexibility. Edmonton’s roster currently projects to check in at more than $350K over the $88MM upper limit, per PuckPedia. Not only do the Oilers need space for day-to-day transactions, but they also still need to come to agreements with RFAs Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway.

After an underwhelming 2023-24 season, the 33-year-old Kane may have seemed like a probable trade candidate for Edmonton to clear cap space. But a full no-movement clause through July 1, 2025, meant he could have blocked any move, including a waiver placement, and the second year of term remaining on his deal makes him a tougher sell to interested teams.

In fact, it’s been an underwhelming couple of seasons for Kane after a strong initial showing in Edmonton. His 44 points in 77 games last season were especially poor production for the power forward, and his 0.57 points per game were his worst since the 2015-16 season. He didn’t fare much better in an injury-plagued 2022-23 campaign either, limited to 16 goals and 28 points in 41 games. His 0.68 points per game that year cratered from the year prior, when he put up 0.91 per game after signing with the Oilers midseason following a contract termination by the Sharks.

The two-time 30-goal scorer still finished fourth on the Oilers in goals (24) and led them in hits (250) last year, but his 16:47 ATOI was his lowest usage since his rookie season with the Atlanta Thrashers in 2009-10.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Clune was a career minor-league bruiser, who played in just two full NHL seasons as part of his 15-year career in North American pros. He scored a career-high nine points in 47 games during the 2012-13 season, swapping record stats in the following year with seven points and a career-high 166 penalty minutes in 58 games. Clune would go on to play just one more NHL game in his career, though he did total an impressive 593 career games in the AHL – recording 151 points and 1,607 penalty minutes.

Other notes from around the league:

• The New Jersey Devils have signed a two-year extension with ECHL affiliate the Adirondack Thunder. The two teams have been partnered since 2017-18, following a brief connection between Adirondack and the Calgary Flames. The Thunder have only missed the playoffs once in their six-year connection with New Jersey, though they’ve failed to make it past Divisional finals.
• The Edmonton Oilers could welcome winger Evander Kane back to the lineup on Friday, with head coach Kris Knoblauch designating him a game-time decision to Dan Rosen of NHL.com (Twitter link). Kane hasn’t played since Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and hasn’t scored since Game 5 against the Dallas Stars. In total he has just eight points in 20 games this postseason, though his aggression and grit will be a welcome boost over Dylan Holloway, who’d stand to lose his role should Kane step back in, shares Renauld Lavoie of TVA Sports (Twitter link).

Tonight’s scratch will be Kane’s first of the playoffs, which is surprising given the ailment he is dealing with. Kane hasn’t been physically healthy throughout the postseason but has still managed four goals and four assists in 20 games. Despite his best effort to remain in the lineup and produce for the Oilers, the 32-year-old has struggled as of late with just a single assist in his last nine games.

Corey Perry will take Kane’s place in the lineup.

In other evening notes:

• Michael Russo of The Athletic is reporting that former Ottawa Senators assistant coach Jack Capuano may be inching closer to a job as an assistant coach of the Minnesota Wild. Capuano was an associate coach with the Senators and the team opted to non-renew his contract making him free to join any team. Capuano coached Ottawa’s defense last season and the results weren’t great, although Ottawa’s team defense overall was poor as was their goaltending. The 57-year-old was previously the head coach of the New York Islanders, a position he held for seven years, compiling a 227-192-64 record.
• TSN is reporting that the Ontario Hockey League’s board of governors is approving the relocation of the Mississauga Steelheads to nearby Brampton, Ontario. While the team is moving cities, it’s not much of a change as Mississauga’s Paramount Fine Foods Centre is just seven kilometres away from the Steelheads new home in Brampton, the CAA Centre. Brampton previously had a team up until 2012-13 when the Battalion moved to North Bay, while Mississauga will be without an OHL franchise for the first time in 26 years.

His routine changed slightly today, though, as he began practice on the ice with an extended chat with head coach Kris Knoblauch before a light skate (via NHL Network’s Tom Gazzola). He only stayed on the ice for a few minutes, leaving the session early. Speaking with reporters after practice, Knoblauch then declined to confirm Kane’s availability for tomorrow’s Game 3 (per NHL.com’s Dan Rosen). If unable to play, it would be his first scratch of the postseason. He’s contributed four goals and eight points in 20 games for Edmonton thus far but has a -7 rating. His 37 PIMs lead the playoffs.

Elsewhere from Oil Country as the Cup Final shifts to Edmonton:

• Defenseman Darnell Nurse will likely play in Game 3 after missing much of Game 2 with an injury, Knoblauch said (via Oilers play-by-play voice Jack Michaels). He missed practice this morning, though, suggesting he definitely won’t be 100 percent. The 29-year-old has seen his average ice time dip below 20 minutes per game in the postseason, and he has just three assists and a -15 rating in 20 contests.
• Veteran winger Corey Perry is also probable to return to the lineup after being held out of Game 2 entirely with an injury, per Knoblauch. Perry is on his 16th trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs but has been in and out of the lineup throughout, posting a lone assist in 14 appearances while averaging 11:04 per game. He’s suiting up in his fourth Stanley Cup Final in the past five years, all with different teams.