The Edmonton Oilers swung for Nikita Zadorov and missed. The proposed trade — Darnell Nurse heading to Boston, Zadorov coming the other way — collapsed, leaving a roster with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl but nobody on the blueline who makes opposing forwards think twice before parking themselves in the crease.
David Staples, the longtime Edmonton Journal columnist, has a name for what the Oilers lost out on and what they still need. He calls it “the nuclear deterrent.” And he thinks it might be sitting on the open market, wearing a familiar jersey.
That would be Evander Kane.
Kane, 34, is an unrestricted free agent after finishing a four-year, $20.5 million contract. He spent last season with the Vancouver Canucks — the Oilers traded him in 2025 — and managed 13 goals and 31 points across 71 games. Not exactly a banner year. But Staples isn’t talking about production. He’s talking about the kind of player who changes the temperature of a playoff series with his shoulders, not his stick.
The argument runs through the 2024 postseason, when Edmonton faced Vancouver in the second round. Zadorov, then a Canuck, spent the series hammering Oilers skaters with what Staples called “wicked body blows,” dictating terms through sheer physical force. “If the Oilers had not had the nuclear deterrent of Evander Kane in that series,” Staples wrote, “Zadorov was so fierce and physically forceful with his hitting, hammering top Oilers players with wicked body blows, that I believe Vancouver would have won that series.”
Kane stepped up and went after Zadorov. The Oilers won the series in seven. That, in Staples’ view, is the whole point.
He didn’t mince words about what Zadorov represents, calling the 6-foot-5, 230-pound defenseman “the NHL’s most dominant intimidator, an apex predator.” The short list of players who belong in that conversation, per Staples: Washington’s Tom Wilson, Florida’s Radko Gudas, and “maybe still Evander Kane.”
Staples acknowledged the idea would split the fan base. “A lot of Oilers fans won’t like the notion of Edmonton almost trading for Zadorov,” he wrote — let alone circling back to a player the organization already moved on from. But the math, in his telling, is simple. You protect McDavid and Draisaitl, or you watch them get worn down over seven games by guys who treat the boards like a weapon.
The financial picture makes a reunion more plausible than it once looked. Edmonton shed Nurse’s contract to San Jose without retaining salary, opening cap space that general manager Stan Bowman used to add depth pieces in Mathieu Joseph, Max Jones, Ryan Shea, and veteran goaltender Frederik Andersen. Kane, coming off a down year and entering his mid-30s, would command a fraction of his previous deal and likely accept a reduced role.
Whether Bowman agrees that a 34-year-old winger with mileage and baggage is the answer to a problem the Zadorov pursuit was supposed to solve — that’s another conversation. Staples has made his case. The Oilers have the cap room. The question is whether they believe the deterrent is still nuclear, or just a name on a contract.
Sources
- Yahoo Sports — ‘The Nuclear Deterrent’ — Oilers Urged to Reunite With 6-Foot-2 Power Forward After Missing Out on Nikita Zadorov
- Wikipedia — Evander Kane
- Wikipedia — Nikita Zadorov