Evander Kane had a strong start to the season, but he's struggled since and recently had a maintenance day. Can he rediscover his best hockey for the Edmonton Oilers' playoff run?

Although this has been a fairly great season for the Edmonton Oilers, the same can’t be said for Oilers winger Evander Kane. 

The 32-year-old began the season very well, posting 20 points in Edmonton’s first 21 games. But since then, Kane has had a subpar rest of the season, with 19 points in 47 games. The Oilers need him to rediscover his scoring touch to have a better chance at defeating the toughest playoff opponents. 

He's been getting his share of scoring chances, but his shooting percentage of 10.3 is the lowest it’s been since his Buffalo Sabres days. As a result, he hasn’t scored a goal since Feb. 19. That’s a terrible drought, and the strain of it is starting to show.

Small wonder, then, that Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch sat Kane out against the Ottawa Senators this week, labelling the move a “maintenance day.” 

The “maintenance” label is hazy – was it a physical maintenance day, a mental maintenance day, or both? But the bottom line is Kane now has just three more points this season than blue-collar worker bee Oilers forward Warren Foegele.

The scoring prowess of fellow Oilers winger Zach Hyman has taken some of the pressure off of Kane, but don’t kid yourself – once the Stanley Cup playoffs begin, Edmonton will need Kane to ratchet up his game. They need him to be the player who had 13 goals in 15 games two post-seasons ago and not the guy who generated only five points in 12 playoff games last spring.

Oilers superstar Connor McDavid has been much more of a playmaker this season, but if Kane doesn’t come through with a solid post-season, there will be heat on him, and questions will arise about his future in Edmonton. 

Kane's contract, worth $5.125 million annually, has two years remaining after this season. While he has a full no-trade clause until the last season of the current deal (according to PuckPedia), Edmonton brass may quietly approach Kane this coming summer to see if it makes sense for both sides to move him to another team.

We aren’t at that point just yet, and there’s still time for Kane to salvage his season by coming on strong and being a playoff force. But that time is starting to run out, and now the question is, which Kane will we see in the playoffs? 

We wouldn’t guarantee anything one way or another for him, but as the Oilers try to lock down home-ice advantage in the post-season, we suspect it will be very difficult for Kane to get back to being a point-per-game player. The hockey is only getting tougher from now on, and the pressure's building to impress or risk seeing the Oilers choose to move on from him.

Playing in a fishbowl like Edmonton isn’t for everyone, especially when times get tough. The Oilers may ultimately be the wrong fit in the long term for Kane despite some hot streaks over the past three seasons, but he still has time to straighten things out and justify the team’s investment in him. The “maintenance day” he’s just had may lead to better days, but the fact Knoblauch had to go that route with Kane speaks to the desperate times they’re in with him now.

If Kane is a passenger the rest of the season and in the playoffs, Oilers management will have to revisit Kane’s future with the franchise this summer. It may be unfair to make Kane the focal point of any doubts there are about the Oilers as a Cup contender, but when you’re paid like a top player and you don’t come through with elite results, expect criticism. That’s where the Oilers and Kane are now, and the pressure will only build from here.