The Edmonton Oilers are expected to be without power forward Evander Kane for multiple months after he underwent surgery to repair several injuries last week.
After revealing a laundry list of injuries in his first media availability of the season on Wednesday, Kane underwent surgery in New York City this past Friday. According to NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, a timeline has not yet been set for Kane’s return, but it’s expected he won’t be ready until the calendar turns to 2025.
“Evander Kane had his surgery Friday in NYC,” Friedman posted. “No exact timeline for recovery, but not expected to be available until January/February.”
Evander Kane had his surgery Friday in NYC. No exact timeline for recovery, but not expected to be available until January/February.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) September 22, 2024
The 33-year-old has been suffering from multiple injuries, some of which he has known about since last October. He played through them for the majority of the 2023-24 NHL season and revealed before the playoffs that he was suffering from a sports hernia. He continued to play through these injuries until he was taken out of the lineup in the final five games of the Stanley Cup Final.
While the sports hernia was one of the injuries operated on, Kane also said he was having surgery to repair both abductors on each of his hips, two torn lower abdominal muscles, and two hernias.
He posted to social media after the surgery to thank the doctors and nurses who helped him through the process. His fiancee, Mara Teigan, also posted a story on her Instagram earlier today wishing her soon-to-be husband a speedy recovery.
@marateigen/Instagram
The Oilers will now have to work around the absence of Kane to start the season. While conventional wisdom would have the team place Kane on LTIR to free up some cap space, it sounds like GM Stan Bowman will try to avoid that for as long as he can so the Oilers can accrue cap space ahead of the trade deadline instead.
For now, all that Kane can do is continue to rehab from the surgery and hope that he can return to his goal-scoring ways once he gets healthy.