Oilers planning to pull a Kucherov ahead of postseason?!

The Edmonton Oilers will have to do without top forward Evander Kane for at least three months, and fans are starting to wonder how will GM Ken Holland feel the void left by Kane up front.

David Staples of the Edmonton Journal wonders if the Oilers will use Kane’s cap hit to add another top-six forward with number 91 returning just before the playoffs.

As you know, Kane was placed on the team’s long-term injury reserve for the next three-to-four months recovering from wrist surgery, which prompted Staples to wonder if we could see a sneaking move on the salary cap from Edmonton as the Tampa Bay Lightning pulled off with forward Nikita Kucherov in 2021.

You may remember how the Russian forward returned for the postseason after missing the regular season while being placed on LTIR. The move enabled the Lightning to maximize their salary cap spending, and according to the rules, Kucherov was eligible to return for the postseason, but wouldn’t have been able to play in the regular season. Since players are not paid in the playoffs, GM Julien BriseBois having was able to re-insert Kucherov into the lineup, despite being 18 million dollars above the salary cap.

“Yes, those are the rules, “ wrote Staples. “Tampa Bay did it. It may well develop in that direction for the Oilers.”

The thing is the Oilers would have to be very careful on the timeline. Kane’s average annual value is $5.125 million and, per Cap Friendly, Edmonton holds $4.76 million in projected trade deadline cap space. An issue that could come up in this plan is that Kane returns ahead of the postseason and the Oilers aren’t cap compliant with an added player via trade.

But when trade talks surface in Edmonton, Pierre LeBrun is quick to refute them. He believes that GM Holland will seek help internally and won’t risk a costly trade at this time as he explained on Insider Trading on TSN on Thursday night:

“First, that [type of] player is not available but more specifically it’s a CBA reason. Kane is going to come back in February or March if all goes well and they need that cap number on the books for him to come back so they can’t go out and spend those cap savings.”

LeBrun went on to explain that the Oilers face the same situation in Colorado as the Avalanche is currently without captain Gabriel Landeskog and winger Valeri Nichushkin, but cannot afford to add more to the cap while waiting for their return.

LeBrun does not believe, as Staples hopes, that the Oilers will pull a Kucherov this season…

But what if his return goes later than expected?