By Pierre LeBrun, Thomas Drance and Daniel Nugent-Bowman
The Edmonton Oilers have traded left wing Evander Kane to the Vancouver Canucks for a 2025 fourth-round pick, the teams announced Tuesday.
Kane’s agent Dan Milstein said three teams were interested in the veteran, but Kane is going back home to Vancouver, which was his preference. With the move, Vancouver is picking up the full $5.125 million cap hit for the final year of the Kane’s contract, a league source said.
“Evander is a physical power forward who will add some much-needed size and toughness to our group,” Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin said. “We like the way he wins puck battles along the boards and handles himself in the dirty areas in front of the net. Evander moves well around the ice and has proven to be a productive goal scorer in the National Hockey League. We are excited to bring him back home to Vancouver and our staff looks forward to working with him this coming season.”
Kane announced the trade on X.
“To the fans — thank you for embracing me and showing unwavering support throughout my time in Edmonton,” he wrote. “Rogers Place was always electric, and I’m proud to have played in front of such a passionate hockey city. My family and I have built some incredible relationships that will last forever.”
As my time with the @EdmontonOilers has now come to a close, I want to take a moment to sincerely thank the entire organization, my teammates, and the incredible community of Edmonton.
To the Oilers Ownership, front office, coaching staff, and trainers—thank you for believing in… pic.twitter.com/huOxax5FxK
— Evander Kane (@evanderkane) June 25, 2025
The 33-year-old last played in his hometown as a teenager in the Western Hockey League.
“It’s an honor to become part of an organization and team I grew up watching as a kid,” he wrote on X. “Vancouver is a city that lives and breathes hockey, I’m looking forward to the opportunity to play in front of my hometown as I did many years ago as a Vancouver Giant.”
Kane missed the entire 2024-25 regular season with an injury, but returned for the postseason and led the team in goals per 60 (1.12) at five-on-five.
Why the Canucks made the trade
The Canucks view Kane as a buy-low power forward with a unique profile. If they’re aware of the risks involved, given Kane’s lengthy history of drama and controversy, and given the internal cultural issues that waylaid this team last season, they’re certainly not worried about them.
Vancouver views their risks on the Kane file as being largely managed by the low cost of acquisition, and the expiring nature of Kane’s commitment. This is, to the organization, a unique opportunity to buy the sort of big, heavy player they needed at the top-end of their lineup, a power forward with real presence.
We’ll see how it works out, but it’s certainly an interesting move for a club that seemed to desperately need something of a cultural reset following a drama-filled, uninspired 2024-25 campaign.
Acquiring Kane for a fourth-round pick leaves Vancouver with about $7 million in remaining salary cap space. That’s space the club will look to utilize aggressively in acquiring a top-six calibre centre, ideally a younger veteran player, on the trade market between now and the NHL Entry Draft.
The club is prepared to select 15th overall on Friday if it comes to that, but their strong preference is to deal that pick for win now help. They’ll likely have to include a salary in a prospective trade now too, and are willing to deal a veteran player on a mid-range salary if the right player comes available. We’ll be keeping our eyes on Dakota Joshua and Teddy Blueger, in the event that the right opportunity to continue to upgrade their top-six forward group comes into focus. — Thomas Drance, Canucks senior writer
What this means for the Oilers
The Oilers lose one of the sport’s true power forwards by moving Kane. His unique blend of scoring prowess and physicality can be matched by only a few NHL peers when he’s healthy and motivated. He displayed that for large stretches in the playoffs as he recorded six goals and 12 points in 21 games.
His departure leaves a significant void in the lineup. It’s still a net benefit for the Oilers because they rid themselves of a major headache and gain $5.125 million in cap space.
Kane choosing to wait until after training camp started in September to have his abdominal/core surgeries put the Oilers in a real bind when it came to roster and salary-cap planning. He then caught the team by surprise by having a knee scope in January.
That issue changed the whole outlook on a possible return before the playoffs. Oilers brass always thought he’d play games in the regular season until then. That belief factored in, at least in part, to their decision not to match the qualifying offers the St. Louis Blues extended to winger Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg.
The uncertainty continued right up until the trade deadline. They only got clarity that Kane would miss the entire regular season in time to use the available cap space to acquire defenseman Jake Walman.
Kane was an effective contributor in the postseason right up until the Stanley Cup Final shifted to Florida for Game 3. A flurry of penalties eventually got him benched and then demoted to the fourth line. He only got time in the top six later in the series out of necessity. His last moment as an Oiler was him exiting the ice after being issued a 10-minute misconduct for slashing Florida Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk.
Clearing Kane’s $5.125 million cap hit gives the Oilers more than $16 million in space, per PuckPedia. That’ll come in handy in their attempts to shop for a goaltender, re-sign pending RFA defenseman Evan Bouchard and UFA forward Trent Frederic and fill out the rest of their roster. — Daniel Nugent-Bowman, Oilers beat writer
(Photo: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
