In a surprising but polarizing move earlier today, the Vancouver Canucksdealt a fourth-round selection in the 2025 NHL Draft for former Edmonton Oilers forward Evander Kane. Kane, who is originally from Vancouver, has already expressed his excitement in returning to play in his hometown.
“It’s an honour 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.”
Many fans have mixed reviews on Kane’s arrival in Vancouver. Despite the forward’s ability to produce in a middle-six role as well as shift the tone in which a team performs at, Kane isn’t getting any younger. The 2025–26 season, which is also the last of his current $5.125M AAV contract, will be his 16th NHL season. This doesn’t include the injuries that have plagued him especially in the past few seasons. Still, Canucks management seems to have faith that Kane will change the way their team plays.
“I think every team is looking to be hard to play against, and for us, with the group we have here, when a player like this becomes available to the cost, we felt we had a chance to upgrade our top nine, mid-six, and become a harder team to play against,” Canucks General Manager Patrik Allvin explained in a media availability on Wednesday. “The way his contract was structured, he had a preferred 15 teams to go to, and Vancouver was his preferred destination.”
Something Allvin notes that Kane can bring to Vancouver with him is experience. Throughout an NHL career that has seen him play for five different teams, Kane has logged almost 100 Stanley Cup Playoff games. In this span of time, he scored 32 goals and 23 assists.
“To have a player that is on a one-year deal get a chance to come home and after two back-to-back years in the Stanley Cup Finals with the experience playing with [Leon] Draisaitl and [Connor] McDavid and a good team in Edmonton, means alot to have an excited player come here to Vancouver and provide the spark and juice we need,” Allvin added.
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One other thing that Allvin touched on was Kane’s off-ice antics. Throughout his career, the 33-year-old has caught heat for a variety of scandals that have made the Canucks fan base wary of acquiring him. Canucks legend Trevor Linden even weighed in on the topic earlier today while on Global News.
“You talk about the dressing room and there’s certainly been those issues throughout Evander’s past. Having said that, he’s a guy that can bring a certain type of hockey to that locker room,” Linden said on a morning segment. “For Edmonton to trade him to a division rival is interesting.”
“I think the past is the past with Evander,” Allvin explained regarding how he thinks the forward has grown as a person. “The last couple of years in Edmonton, I think he contributed a lot to the off-ice stuff and helping out in the society there. Having three kids here now, I think he’s matured. I do believe that this gives us a chance and gives him a chance to see if this is a fit.”
Fans will have to wait for the 2025–26 season to begin to see how the Kane experiment goes. In the meantime, the 2025 NHL Draft is only two days away, while the 2025 free agency period opens up on July 1.
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