Canucks Notes: Kane, Buium, Hoglander
It’s already known that winger Evander Kane won’t finish the year with the Vancouver Canucks since the team allowed his agent to negotiate a trade to another organization. Still, Kane has yet to be moved.
Most of the interest in Kane is coming from the Western Conference, where he may prefer to remain. The Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars have already been linked, with beat writer Robert Tiffin confirming the latter team’s interest earlier today. Additionally, Dennis Bernstein of The Fourth Period reported today that the Los Angeles Kings have entered the mix for Kane’s services.
Multiple outlets have claimed that the Canucks were willing to retain some salary on the remainder of Kane’s contract and are only looking for a prospect or draft capital in return. Throughout his career, Kane has achieved at least a 20-goal campaign more often than not, though he has struggled to put the puck in the net this year, with nine goals in 52 games. Still, interested teams have likely placed more value on his playoff performance the past two years, scoring 10 goals and 20 points in 41 games, with 159 hits, helping the Edmonton Oilers reach back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals.
Additional notes from the Vancouver Canucks:
- After losing netminder Thatcher Demko for the remainder of the season, Vancouver may also be without one of their top young blue-liners for the foreseeable future. Passing along a note from head coach Adam Foote, Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre reported that defenseman Zeev Buium has a broken cheekbone and that surgery has not been ruled out. The Canucks are wholly expecting him to remain out through the upcoming Olympic break. Buium has scored two goals and six points in 20 games, while averaging 20:25 of ice time per night, since being acquired from the Minnesota Wild in mid-December.
- The injury concern doesn’t end there for the Canucks. According to Sportsnet’s Randip Janda, forward Nils Höglander is being evaluated for a lower-body injury from yesterday’s game against the San Jose Sharks. It’s not the first time Höglander has dealt with injury concerns this year, missing the first two months of the season due to a separate lower-body ailment. He has registered only two assists in 18 games since returning.
Canucks Give Agent Of Evander Kane Permission To Facilitate Trade
1/26/2026: CHEK TV’s Rick Dhaliwal reported today that the Canucks have given Kane’s agent, Dan Milstein of Gold Star Hockey, permission to help facilitate a trade for his client. There is no firm indication as to how close Kane is to actually being traded, but today’s report indicates that the Canucks are taking steps to try to help make one happen.
1/23/2026: The Vancouver Canucks are once again busying up with the Trade Deadline around the corner. A focal point this year could be moving winger Evander Kane, who joined Vancouver in a trade from the Edmonton Oilers at the 2025 NHL Draft. After not clicking in the Canucks lineup, Kane could be headed across the Western Conference, with the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche currently the favorites to make a trade per NHL.com’s Kevin Weekes.
Despite spending his junior hockey days in Vancouver, Kane hasn’t found much spark in his return to the city. He has nine goals, 57 penalty minutes, and a minus-18 in 49 games with the Canucks. He’s filled an important role in the lineup – averaging 16:55 in ice time each game, sixth among Canucks forwards – but Kane has ended up one of a few sputtering tires on Vancouver’s flanks. The club traded cornerstone defenseman Quinn Hughes earlier this season and could soon do the same with top center Elias Pettersson. With a teardown in progress, a part with the veteran Kane seems only natural.
Just as fitting are the teams in the mix for landing the former Atlanta Thrasher top pick. Both Dallas and Colorado have proved to be a comfortable spot for aging veterans. The Stars have continued to get the most out of franchise icons Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn, while Colorado has leaned on big impacts from Jonathan Drouin and Brock Nelson in recent years. Kane’s game has noticeably slowed down on the other side of 30 but still plays a professional style that could click in the right system. He has offered reliable goal-scoring throughout his career, netting at least 20 goals in nine of his last 13 seasons in the league. He has also recorded at least 80 penalty minutes in seven seasons.
That mix of grit and shooting – as well as Kane’s 979 games of NHL experience – will be what the Central Division rivals eye as they try to find a trade. Kane is set to hit unrestricted free agency this summer, which should keep his price low. Dallas has two second round picks, and one third round pick, in the next two drafts, while Colorado only has two second-round picks in 2027. Those could end up the bartering chips in a deal and Dallas holds the taller stack.
Colorado’s advantage comes in the finance books. The Avalanche will have roughly $5.089MM in cap space at the Trade Deadline, while the Stars will only have $3.267MM in space per PuckPedia. That means that Colorado will only need some cap juggling to afford adding Kane, while Dallas will need to move a minor contract.
Acquiring Kane will surely fit into a larger scheme for both teams, who seem set to buy at the Deadline after hot starts to the season. Kane will step in as a middle-six winger wherever he ends up. Joining a team headed for playoff success may even spark a final hoorah for Kane. He proved to be a hard playoff opponent in four years with the Edmonton Oilers, where he recorded 42 points and 164 penalty minutes in 68 games. That grit, and the spark of a recent move, could make Kane a timely addition in the second half.
Assessing The Canucks’ Direction
Reports surfaced earlier this month that the Canucks had re-engaged in contract talks with pending free-agent forward Kiefer Sherwood and were discussing a potential five- or six-year deal worth over $4MM per season. It’s hard to say whether the reports had merit, or whether the Canucks were serious about retaining Sherwood – or merely posturing to get a better trade return before the trade deadline.
Regardless of their true intentions, the Canucks’ direction is tough to figure out. They currently sit last in the NHL standings and, since New Year’s Day, are 0-7-2 and have been outscored 40-14. They don’t appear close to a winning run, yet there is little talk of a sell-off or a pivot into a rebuild. Their fans certainly like to talk on social media about embracing the tank, and the Canucks are reportedly willing to listen to offers for Elias Pettersson.
The truth about Vancouver is that it’s been a mess, off and on, for the better part of the last 10 to 15 years, from the top of the organization down to the players. There have been highs and moments of hope when it looked like the team was on the cusp of greatness, but those highs have been short-lived, followed by rapid declines.
The last two years are a clear example: the Canucks went from a team that was a win away from the Western Conference Final to one that missed the playoffs last season and appears destined to do the same this year. Those falls aren’t all that common (although the Rangers are living through a familiar descent) and are generally the result of self-inflicted missteps or a run of terrible luck.
In Vancouver’s case, it appears to be a mix of both, but there is no doubt that the J.T. Miller/Pettersson rift did irreparable damage that could have long-standing effects on Vancouver’s locker room.
Miller’s departure should have signaled the Canucks’ direction. Still, a quick trade for defenseman Marcus Pettersson and forward Drew O’Connor then implied that Vancouver intended to compete for a playoff spot last season, and the subsequent re-signing of both players certainly reinforced that notion.
Internal and external pressures aside, the trade to bring in Pettersson and O’Connor added to the Canucks’ depth, and they shed some bad contracts (Danton Heinen and Vincent Desharnais) in the deal with Pittsburgh. But the trades showed a lack of direction for Vancouver, and that carried into last year’s trade deadline as well as the summer, when the Canucks showed a lack of forward thinking. All of that leads us to this season, where Vancouver has spun its wheels despite rostering an ageing, expensive core.
The Miller trade to the Rangers had to happen, and while the return wasn’t great, it wasn’t awful either, as Miller has struggled to regain his form in the Big Apple. But the moves that followed the trade felt reactionary and forced, and ultimately proved in vain.
Pettersson was a top-pairing defender in Pittsburgh, but this season with the Canucks has been perhaps the worst of his career. The 29-year-old looks to be a shell of his former self and, like many players in Vancouver, has been terrible.
O’Connor has been fine in Vancouver, tallying 10 goals and seven assists in 47 games thus far while continuing to use his speed and size to be disruptive on the forecheck. That move, while tainted by Pettersson’s play this year, made sense at the time, but as the Canucks approached the trade deadline, some of management’s decision-making left a lot to be desired.
There was a moment after the Miller trade when the Canucks could have pivoted to a quick retool that might have been tough to stomach for the rest of last year and this season, but it would likely have yielded results next season. Instead, the Canucks did what they did, extended both Pettersson and O’Connor, and inked backup goaltender Kevin Lankinen to a deal that pays him $4.5MM per season for five years. All of it was reactionary, in the hope of getting the Canucks into the postseason last year. They didn’t.
The Canucks also tried to trade Brock Boeser last year at the deadline, but weren’t able to come to terms on a deal. It seemed all but certain he would bolt elsewhere in free agency last summer, but there he was on July 1, surprisingly signing a seven-year agreement with Vancouver that appears set to age like milk.
The Canucks added to their forward depth in another move, acquiring Evander Kane via trade from Edmonton. It was an acceptable deal in a vacuum; however, given Vancouver’s overall roster construction, it was a head-scratcher, as the Canucks used much of their cap space to fix the wing while watching their already thin center position get worse when Pius Suter departed in free agency.
Vancouver spent the rest of the summer making small roster changes in hopes that the core would find its mojo again. Still, a few months into the season, it was clear that wasn’t going to happen, which sparked trade rumours for their star defenseman, Quinn Hughes, whom they eventually dealt to Minnesota towards the end of 2025. The Hughes deal was actually a great haul for Vancouver given the circumstances, but it has officially put them into a hybrid retool that probably should’ve happened a year ago.
Hindsight is 20/20, but had Vancouver pivoted in early 2025 after trading Miller, they might have avoided some of the mistakes they’ve made over the past year, which have effectively set them back a few years. Instead, Vancouver is locked into long-term deals with underperforming forwards, a talented yet expensive goalie tandem that has injury and inconsistency issues, and a defense core that is now average at best.
Sure, they do have some nice young players who will likely become NHLers, but they will be surrounded by an old, pricey core unless the Canucks can start moving out from under some of the contracts they’ve locked in. No one is taking Boeser’s deal this year; the same could probably be said for Elias Pettersson’s.
But Vancouver could move their pending UFAs before the trade deadline and have nearly $17MM in cap space next summer to sign just two roster players (as per PuckPedia). That type of wiggle room could allow for additions before next season, but it’s not clear whether Vancouver should do that in the midst of what appears to be either a retool or a rebuild.
Patience might be the best thing for the president of hockey ops, Jim Rutherford and general manager Patrik Allvin to exercise, but given their track records, that has not been their strong suit, and it is a big part of the reason the Canucks find themselves where they are.
Oilers Cleared Of Wrongdoing Regarding Last Season’s LTIR Usage
The NHL’s investigation into the Oilers’ usage of long-term injured reserve last season regarding winger Evander Kane has been closed, deputy commissioner Bill Daly tells Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News. The league found Edmonton did not circumvent the salary cap, and the organization will not face any resulting penalties, either retroactive or for the upcoming 2025-26 season.
Back in June, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reported the league was extending its inquiry regarding Kane’s eligibility for long-term injured reserve. The league routinely examines teams’ manipulation of the cap-offsetting outlet to ensure that all placements are medically valid and aren’t solely being used as vehicles to allow the club to carry over-the-cap rosters in the postseason – a ‘loophole’ that’s getting closed this year anyway.
It’s never been formally reported as to why the league was unsatisfied with the initial documentation they’d received from Edmonton about Kane’s LTIR placement. There may have been scrutiny about the timing of the multiple procedures he underwent, both during last offseason and in-season, that forced him to sit out the entirety of the 2024-25 regular season. The Oilers and Kane waited until days before training camp to have him undergo a wide-ranging surgery to repair a sports hernia and hip/abdominal issues that had plagued him the previous year, and he then had an initial knee surgery in January to repair a congenital defect that delayed his recovery timeline past the end of the regular season.
Yet, Edmonton only barely dipped into the additional flexibility Kane’s LTIR placement afforded them. They didn’t move him there from standard IR until just before the trade deadline, and he wasn’t cleared to return at the very beginning of the playoffs. His 2025 postseason debut for Edmonton had to wait until Game 2 of their first-round win over the Kings.
That last stipulation could be why the league is coming away satisfied with their assessment – either that, or they’re now assured the reasons for the seemingly delayed timing of his surgeries were medically valid.
Kane had six goals and 12 points in 21 playoff games for the Oilers. The team parted ways with him days later, dealing the final year of his contract at a $5.125MM cap hit to the Canucks for a mid-round pick.
Pacific Notes: Kane, Demko, Turcotte
Although recently traded Evander Kane has just one year remaining on his four-year, $20.5MM contract, the Canucks are eyeing him as a potential long-term asset beyond this season.
Per Thomas Drance of The Athletic, GM Patrik Allvin stated that in his estimation, Kane has matured over the past few years in Edmonton and is a candidate for a long-term deal in Vancouver. NHL.com’s Chris Faber adds that Allvin believes Kane’s physical presence will make the Canucks hard to play against.
“Every team is looking to be harder to play against and for us, with the group we have here, when a player like this comes available [at this] cost, we felt we have a chance to upgrade our top-nine [and] middle-six, and become a harder team to play against,” said Allvin.
The 33-year-old winger put up 24 goals, 44 points, and a staggering 250 hits in 77 games for the Oilers last season. He currently ranks 20th all-time with 2,216 career hits.
Elsewhere in the Pacific:
- The Canucks are interested in extending goalie Thatcher Demko, and TSN’s Darren Dreger said on Toronto 1050’s Overdrive that he believes an extension is more likely than a trade at this point. While Demko is coming off his worst NHL season (due in large part to injuries), posting an .889 save percentage in 23 games, he carries a career .910 save percentage and is still on the right side of 30. Demko has one year remaining on his $5MM AAV deal and is set for unrestricted free agency next year. While the Canucks extended goalie Kevin Lankinen to a five year, $22.5MM deal, Dreger believes the team is still interested in getting a deal done with Demko. “It made sense until recently that they would have to consider trading Demko. But I was told by a couple teams today that Demko is more or less off the market,” he said. While Dreger said he wouldn’t call a deal close or imminent, he does feel both sides are getting closer on a multi-year extension.
- Multiple teams are interested in trading for Los Angeles Kings’ forward Alex Turcotte, per Mayors Manor. While speculation has been ramping up surrounding defender Jordan Spence and forward Trevor Moore, Turcotte is an interesting name to monitor. While Turcotte, a former first-round pick, has underperformed so far in his career, he’s coming off a career-high 68 games played and 25 points, and he’s still just 24. The fifth-overall selection in the 2019 draft could benefit from a change of scenery.
Canucks Acquire Evander Kane From Oilers
11:01 a.m.: The trade call is complete, and the Oilers have now announced the deal.
10:01 a.m.: The Oilers and Canucks are working on a trade that would send winger Evander Kane to Vancouver if completed, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports Wednesday. Kane has confirmed the move himself on his X account. The Canucks are sending the Senators’ 2025 fourth-round pick (No. 117 overall) to Edmonton in return, according to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff.
Kane had frequently been speculated as a trade candidate in the days since the Oilers lost their second consecutive Stanley Cup Final. Edmonton requires additional salary cap flexibility this summer to iron out a new deal for restricted free agent defenseman Evan Bouchard while reserving space for potential depth scoring and goaltending upgrades.
The 33-year-old winger is entering the final season of the four-year, $20.5MM contract he signed with the Oilers in 2022, which carries a $5.125MM cap hit. Edmonton is not retaining any of his salary, per Ryan Rishaug of TSN. Kane had a 16-team approved trade list as protection, but it doesn’t appear that was a hiccup for today’s move. Vancouver, Kane’s hometown, was his preferred destination if traded, LeBrun reports.
Kane’s move comes amid an active league inquiry into the Oilers’ handling of his surgeries and subsequent long-term injured reserve placement that kept him out for the entire 2024-25 regular season. The 6’2″ lefty underwent a wide-ranging abdominal/hip surgery last offseason but waited until the beginning of training camp to do so, keeping him sidelined until an expected January return.
Edmonton then announced shortly before he was due to return that Kane needed knee surgery, which paused his recovery from the previous surgery and added weeks to his return timeline. He wasn’t cleared to return until Game 2 of the first round, and the Oilers used the cap space Kane’s LTIR placement created to acquire defenseman Jake Walman from the Sharks in the week before the trade deadline. That surgery was recently reported as addressing a congenital issue, raising concerns with the league about the team’s decision to have him undergo the surgery at that point.
Upon returning to action in the playoffs, Kane’s performance was as expected. Even for his injury troubles and disciplinary concerns – he led the Oilers with 44 PIMs in the postseason – he’s still an extremely effective top-nine scorer and posted a 6-6–12 scoring line in 21 games. His defensive impacts continue to drag on his value, though. While never a stalwart shutdown winger by any stretch, his possession play was historically competent enough to help compensate for his defensive faults. That hasn’t been the case during his last couple of seasons in Edmonton, though, and it was especially apparent in the playoffs. Kane’s 45.5 CF% at even strength was 16th out of 23 Oilers skaters, while his relative impact of -6.5% was 18th.
That won’t be of enormous concern to Vancouver, though, especially with just one season left on his deal. The Canucks desperately needed to acquire scoring depth this offseason, and they’ll accomplish that in a pure form with Kane’s pickup. He’s averaged 29 goals and 54 points per 82 games over his 16-year NHL career. Those numbers would have put him in the team lead in goals and second in points last season. Vancouver only averaged 2.84 goals per game, 23rd in the league. Health is a legitimate concern – Kane’s only topped the 70-game mark once in the last five seasons – but with no long-term financial risk and a minimal acquisition cost, it’s a risk worth taking.
Kane should be penciled into a top-six role in Vancouver. He could even see increased minutes as a top-line wing option for Elias Pettersson, particularly with the Canucks expected to lose Brock Boeser in free agency next week.
As for the Canucks’ salary cap picture, they’re down to just over $7MM in space but have just one roster spot to fill assuming depth names like Linus Karlsson and youngsters like Jonathan Lekkerimaki and Victor Mancini get cracks on the opening night roster in the fall. While Boeser won’t be back in the picture, they have the flexibility to iron out an extension to keep center Pius Suter off the UFA market if they choose.
Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK TV was the first to report that the Oilers received a mid-round draft pick in return for Kane.
Image courtesy of Perry Nelson-Imagn Images.
NHL Continuing Inquiry Into Oilers’ LTIR Usage
When teams have big-money players stashed on long-term injured reserve for significant portions of the season, it’s become commonplace for the NHL to direct additional scrutiny toward their medical records to ensure they’re not circumventing the salary cap. It’s become a hot-button issue in recent years with star players missing most or all of the regular season with injuries, only to return at the beginning of the playoffs when the upper limit is no longer in effect.
In every case in recent memory, the league has been satisfied with the documentation they’ve received, and those inquiries have been closed during the postseason. However, that isn’t the case with the Oilers and winger Evander Kane, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff writes. The league’s investigation on that matter is still ongoing, and the potential remains for the Oilers to have a retroactive penalty if they conclude Edmonton violated the CBA.
It’s not clear what aspect of Kane’s LTIR usage the league isn’t satisfied with. He didn’t return immediately as the playoffs started – he was only cleared for Game 2 of the first round against the Kings, not Game 1, and didn’t receive an AHL conditioning stint leading up to his return. Edmonton also didn’t dip into the cap flexibility that Kane’s LTIR placement afforded them until the trade deadline, when team doctors confirmed he wouldn’t be cleared to play before the end of the regular season.
Speculatively, the issue could be the nature and timing of the second surgery Kane underwent. The power winger played through a sports hernia at the tail end of last season and finally ended up undergoing a wide-ranging procedure that repaired multiple hip and abdominal muscles in September 2024. Waiting until training camp to undergo the procedure was already eye-raising, but it only carried a four-month timeline that would have had him back in the lineup before the trade deadline anyway.
Then, Kane underwent an unrelated surgery on his knee in January, pausing his rehab from his earlier surgery and effectively ending his regular season. The team didn’t disclose details on the procedure at a time. Yesterday, Seravalli reported the surgery removed a “congenital tumor-like growth.” With the knee issue being present for his entire life and career, the league could be questioning why the Oilers chose that specific window to have Kane undergo surgery, particularly so late in his recovery from another procedure.
Evander Kane, John Klingberg Will Play In Game 2
The Oilers suffered a dramatic loss in Game 1 to the Kings, with top-nine forward Evander Kane unavailable as he has been all season, having undergone multiple surgeries. He and defenseman John Klingberg, who’s been out since late March with a lower-body injury, have been cleared by Edmonton’s medical staff and will be in the lineup for Game 2 tonight as they try to even the series, head coach Kris Knoblauch said (via the team’s Tony Brar).
It’s not unexpected – Knoblauch said yesterday there was a strong possibility of both being cleared. Both ended the season on long-term injured reserve and will technically need to be activated. However, that’s an inconsequential move as roster limits and the salary cap are no longer in effect during the playoffs.
Tonight will be Kane’s first game since Game 2 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final on June 10, so that’s 317 days between games. The 33-year-old played through a sports hernia to end last season and paid the price. He underwent surgery in September and also required corrective action on two torn hip adductors and lower abdominal muscles. He was initially expected to return around January, but a knee issue arose during his recovery that required surgery in early January. That kept him on LTIR for the balance of the regular season, although he’s been skating now for a couple of weeks.
When Kane is healthy, he’s been an impact player for the Oilers in the postseason. He led the playoffs with 13 goals in just 15 games in Edmonton’s run to the Western Conference Final in 2022 and has 20-10–30 in 47 postseason games as an Oiler overall. Edmonton will bank on him being an important secondary scoring option after Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, Zach Hyman, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins combined to score 48.3% of the Oilers’ total goals in the regular season.
In a follow-up report from Brar, it appears Kane will join Nugent-Hopkins and Hyman on the team’s second line, while Klingberg will play next to Jake Walman on the second defensive pairing. Although there’s nothing to pull from the 2024-25 campaign, the offensive trio combined for a 60.6% xGoals% last season in 83.1 minutes of action according to MoneyPuck. Should the Oilers receive something similar this evening and for the remainder of the series, the Kings will have a hard time defending against Edmonton’s offense.
Meanwhile, the Oilers have intelligently placed Klingberg next to a capable, defensive-minded blue liner. Despite nearly doubling his career-high in points this season, Walman is best known for his defensive prowess, earning an E +/- of 3.9 in 15 games with Edmonton after the trade deadline and an on-ice save percentage of 92.1% at even strength. In contrast, Klingberg had a lower performance, recording an E +/- of -1.9 over 11 games.
Evening Notes: Kane, Klingberg, Team USA, Backlund, Alexeyev
After giving up six goals on 30 shots, it was clear throughout Game One that the Edmonton Oilers could use some reinforcements. According to Sportsnet’s Jack Michaels, that could be a realistic possibility relatively soon.
Michaels publicized a note from Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch indicating that there’s a “very good possibility” Edmonton will have forward Evander Kane and defenseman John Klingberg for Game 2 in their opening-round series against the Los Angeles Kings. Neither player offers much in the defensive zone, but could prove valuable on the Oilers’ forecheck.
Kane will be the most interesting of the two to reinsert into the lineup. Despite letting in six goals, Edmonton still produced five, meaning Kane could give them the offensive edge to win the one-goal contests if their defense and goaltending struggle. Meanwhile, Klingberg failed to garner much offensive consistency with the Oilers in limited action this year, scoring one goal and four points in 11 games.
Other evening notes:
- Earlier today, USA Hockey announced the rest of their coaching staff for the 2025 IIHF World Championships. According to the announcement, Mike Vellucci (Pittsburgh Penguins), Kevin Dean (Chicago Blackhawks), and Adam Nightingale (Michigan State University) will serve as assistant coaches to head coach Ryan Warsofsky. Meanwhile, Thomas Speer has been named the team’s goaltending coach, while Nick Gialdini (San Jose Sharks) and Lawrence Feloney (Nashville Predators) will be the team’s video coaches.
- On the other side of the bracket, the Calgary Flames announced an important for Team Sweden this afternoon. The Flames shared that captain Mikael Backlund will participate in the World Championships for Sweden for the first time in seven years. Backlund delivered an outstanding performance in the 2018 IIHF World Championships, scoring two goals and accumulating nine points in 10 games, which helped lead Sweden to consecutive gold medals.
- Despite winning in overtime in Game 1 against the Montreal Canadiens, the Washington Capitals had an injury scare late in the third period when defenseman Alexander Alexeyev left the game due to being high-sticked by Jake Evans. Fortunately, Alexeyev’s absence will not be lengthy, as Sammi Silber of The Hockey News reports he will rejoin the lineup tomorrow night. It’s an important injury update for the Capitals as the team recently lost defenseman Martin Fehérváry for the postseason due to knee surgery.
Oilers To Activate John Klingberg, Evander Kane And Trent Frederic Close
The Edmonton Oilers are expected to activate defenseman John Klingberg off of long-term injured reserve before Monday shares Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic. Klingberg will be a Game 1 option for the Oilers as they prepare for a first round series against the Los Angeles Kings, after missing 20 of Edmonton’s last 21 games with a lower-body injury. Nugent-Bowman added that Evander Kane and Trent Frederic will also be close to full health in time for Game 1, though neither forward has been confirmed just yet.
Klingberg signed with the Oilers in late January. He took some time to get up to speed, but worked his way into the daily lineup through much of February. Head coach Kris Knoblauch rotated Klingberg through reps on all three defensive pairings. The 11-year-veteran averaged just over 17 minutes of ice time each game and found his way to four points, 13 blocked shots, and five hits. But Klingberg’s run at the Oilers’ lineup was short-lived, and he fell to injury after just 10 games. His departure came just ahead of the Trade Deadline, and could have been part of why Edmonton paid the lofty price of Carl Berglund and a first-round draft pick to acquire Jake Walman from the San Jose Sharks. That’s proved the expert’s bet as the season’s second-half wrapped up, with Walman netting eight points in 15 games before the end of Edmonton’s season.
Klingberg attempted to return from his injury on March 27th – two weeks after he left the lineup. But he needed a longer recovery window, keeping the Oilers back from rostering a much-needed right-shot defenseman. Edmonton will get that benefit back just in time now – and at a perfect time too. The Oilers have already ruled out top-four defenseman Mattias Ekholm for the entire first round. Walman was also questionable for the start of the first round, though the defender told media on Friday that he feels ready to go. Walman will instantly assume a top-four role on Edmonton’s left-side, while the club decides between icing Klingberg – or one of Brett Kulak or Ty Emberson on their off-hand – to round out their right-side.
The Oilers could get more good news out of Frederic or Kane soon. The former was another Trade Deadline pickup, but has only managed one appearance with the Oilers since March. Frederic has been coping with an ankle injury, but made his return to full practice in the skates leading up to the first round. If he is indeed headed back to the lineup, he’ll bring a mix of shooting luck and heavy-frame physicality needed to back up Edmonton’s superstars. Kane could bring the same mix, though he missed the entirety of the regular season with a mix of injuries and surgeries. Frederic recorded eight goals and 15 points in 57 games with the Boston Bruins prior to his trade to Edmonton; while Kane scored 24 goals and 44 points in 77 games last season. It seems Frederic will be the healthier of the two, though both could factor into Edmonton’s bottom-six over the course of round one.