Edmonton Oilers have a trump card to play against St. Louis Blues ...

There’s some suggestion that the St. Louis Blues played their cards just right in making offer sheets to Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway of the Edmonton Oilers.

On his 32 Thoughts podcast, for example, Elliotte Friedman spelled out some of the crafty aspects of the St. Louis move, how GM Doug Armstrong waited for just the right moment to spring his trap of offer-sheeting two Oilers at once, just when the Oilers could not possibly do another buy-out, and how Armstrong is not worried about any kind of retaliatory offer sheet from the cap-strapped Oilers down the road.

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There’s no doubt that St. Louis’ offer has put the Oilers into a more difficult position. It’s no easy matter to suddenly come up with $4 or $5 million in extra cap space for two young players for the coming season. It will give the team that much less wiggle room as the year goes on to possibly acquire another player.

But just when disaster seemingly strikes opportunity sometimes presents itself.

Just when your opponent is gifted a great hand, a trump card may come your way.

And that’s what I’m seeing with the Edmonton Oilers just now in the way of news that Evander Kane is likely going to get surgery at some point for his sports hernia and/or hip issues. Friedman reports that one issue dragging things out has been Kane and the Oilers finding the right doctor to do the surgery. “Eventually (Kane) will have the surgery and he’s going to be out months, and I’m not talking one or two months. I think he’s going to be out longer than that.”

Friedman said he did not know if the recovery from the injury would take Kane through the regular season and to the playoffs. “I had some people say to me there’s no guarantee Kane is going to be out that long.”

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I had thought that based on Kane’s strong playoff performance and the fact that sports hernia surgery takes about three months to recover from we might be seeing Kane sooner than later this season, but that may not be the case, especially if Kane has multiple issues that need to be handled.

What’s clear now though is that the Oilers can easily match Broberg and Holloway’s offer sheets — if they value the players enough at those salaries — and have cap space to pay them while Kane is on Long Term Injured Reserve. Edmonton will be over the cap, but will solve that with Kane’s LTIR status and by going with a tighter roster at the NHL level, 20 or 21 players, not 23.

The NHL collective bargaining agreement allows for teams to make offer sheets to restricted free agents like Broberg and Holloway. That’s within the rules, but so is it within the rules for players to go on LTIR for lengthy periods of time, then come back for the playoffs. Maybe time for Edmonton to get smart and push the envelope on this rule, just as Vegas and Tampa have done in recent years? Might that not be a plan?

If this is a game of hockey hearts, that would definitely be the short-suited Oilers throwing down the Queen of Spades on the Blues and on Edmonton’s NHL competition.

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The trump card of Kane on LTIR can play out in a few ways for the Oilers.

Maybe Kane stays on LTIR all season, giving the aging and banged up power forward plenty of time to recover, fully heal and build up his body to be ready for the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The only season that really matters to this Oilers team is the playoff season. Having Kane at 100 per cent for the playoffs would be huge for the Oilers.

Or maybe another player or two gets injured on the Oilers, and there’s more urgency in Kane returning to the line-up in January or February. With some other player on LTIR, there will be cap space to do it.

Playing the clever game of revolving players on LTIR is something Vegas is adept at. Why not the Oilers?

Or maybe Edmonton decides to move out a player or two as the season goes on and as solid trading opportunities come up. There’s no need to rush into a trade now. Some NHL GM might well be desperate for a veteran depth forward or d-man as the season goes along and be willing to pay a far more pretty price than the Oilers could get just now in trade.

Essentially, there’s no need for Edmonton to whine or cry or bellyache or rush or panic here. Edmonton just has to play the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement game as other masters of this game have been playing it for years.

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Kane’s surgery looks like it will give Edmonton everything it needs, not only if it wants to foil Armstrong’s clever plan, but also to gear up to compete for the Stanley Cup, which is the real goal.

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