Connor McDavid has allegedly convinced Evander Kane to sign in Edmonton

Chatter got loud on Tuesday that Evander Kane was close to signing a new NHL contract with the Edmonton Oilers.

It all started over the weekend when Kane was placed on unconditional waivers and then bought out by the San Jose Sharks after he reportedly left the team’s AHL affiliate Barracuda to fly home to Vancouver for the holidays despite testing positive for COVID-19. Kane was allegedly still in the quarantine phase of his illness but flew home against league protocol anyways and then flew back to San Jose a week later than he was scheduled for. In effect he dipped on his team to spend Christmas at home even while being COVID-19 positive and then stayed at home an extra week… just because? Once Kane arrived back in San Jose he was informed that he had breached his contract and it would be terminated, resulting in him becoming a free agent. This, of course, is on top of all the other drama that Kane has gotten himself into in the past calendar year. Without rehashing everything in order he has filed for bankruptcy, gone through a messy divorce and was suspended for 21 games for providing a fake vaccination card. You know the story by now.

On Tuesday, while his agent Dan Milstein maintains that interested teams are still being interviewed, former NHL referee Tim Peel (now turned insider?) reported that Kane was going to sign with the Oilers. Reporter Irfaan Gaffar took to Twitter not only to say that Tim was right, but also mentioned how several teams were interested in Kane, but that for the Oilers, “a conversation with McDavid probably helped the decision as well.”

It would be the first time a team seeks the help of its captain to convince a player to join its roster. However, you have to imagine how weird it might have been for McDavid to speak to Kane and all of his heavy baggage attached to beg him to come to Edmonton… However, TSN’s Darren Dreger mentioned in tonight’s Insider Trading how on board the captain is with the idea of signing Kane:

“Connor McDavid, the captain of the Edmonton Oilers, most definitely on board for adding Evander Kane. You can look at him as a big, strong, left-side power forward who can skate and score, so who doesn’t want to add that in terms of the hockey perspective, but Kane continues to do his due diligence along with his agent Dan Milstein.”

I don’t know about this. Sure, it’s a great opportunity for Kane if the reports are true and that he will become an Oiler. He could finally have a clear shot at the Stanley Cup. But while Edmonton would surely benefit from a boost up front, it needs to focus at their issues in between the pipes to be true contenders…

And not sure whatever distraction Kane will bring to the dressing is what McDavid and the Oilers need at the moment…