Congratulations to Evander Kane, who according to the Edmonton Oilers, flew home to be with his girlfriend who just gave birth to a baby boy. Kane left the Oilers after the Game 4 win over Calgary to be by her side and it sounds like Iverson Frank Kane was born happy and healthy.
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This is great news for Kane as a father and a person but could pose a slight issue for the Oilers if he won’t be available for Game 5 as Edmonton tries to close out Calgary and end their second-round series on Thursday evening.
Kane leads all scorers in the playoffs with 12 goals, three ahead of David Perron who has 9 goals for the St. Louis Blues. Kane has found tremendous chemistry on this Oilers team and head coach Jay Woodcroft said, “It’s really impressive what he’s doing. The other thing he doesn’t get credit for is just how physical he is. He finishes every check, he goes to hard areas to score…”
As TSN’s Chris Johnston pointed out, no one has scored more than 15 goals in one Stanley Cup playoffs season over the last 25 years (Sidney Crosby, 2009, Alex Ovechkin, 2018). If Kane can do it, it would put him in some elite company. It would also help him earn every penny he’s about to receive as a pending free agent this summer.
The Oilers brought him in at a cost-effective rate of $2 million for this one season. He’s turned out to be exactly what the team needed and they’ve really gone on a positive run since his arrival. The Oilers are likely going to do their best to retain him this offseason, but that won’t come cheap.
For now, Kane is focused on the birth of his son. Next, he’ll focus on getting back to the Oilers and helping them get to the Western Conference Finals. Kane now has 34 goals in 54 games as an Oiler.
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