The only question of Evander Kane returning to an NHL lineup was if the NHL were to clear him from his investigation. Once he was cleared from that, he would be free to sign anywhere, and teams would be lining up.

The league did clear Kane of wrongdoing and he eventually signed with the Edmonton Oilers. It was broken by Kevin Weekes:

With the pro-rated hit and all that, it's not an issue to get him on the roster. The only question then is where he would line up. His role seemed obvious, but we got clarity in practice on Friday:

That he went right to the top line makes the most sense. We will have to see how he's used on the power play, but it's likely he's on the top unit as well.

So, the only question for us is: what is his upside in Edmonton for the second half of the second? Let's dig in.

He hasn't played in the NHL this season, so we have to go back to 2018-2021 to see what he can do. In that span, he averaged 33 goals per 82 games and 3.5 shots per game. He did that skating over 19 minutes a night in San Jose. But that kind of masks his shooting volumes a bit.

Over the course of 2019-21, or 120 regular season games, Kane took 16.2 shot attempts per 60 minutes at 5-on-5. That is a very good rate, generally, but that aggregate rate over 120 games would be the worst for him in any single season since his 2009 rookie campaign in Atlanta. A jump in ice time masked a shot decline and that's worth noting for a guy that's 30 years old.

He isn't necessarily great in transition, either. According to CJ Turtoro's viz site, from 2017-20, he was mid-pack across the league by zone entry and exit percentage. He was even worse in the shortened 2021 season. This isn't to say it's not something that can't improve – playing with Connor McDavid should help those zone entry numbers – but it's not particularly a strength of his. All that means is while he's a shooter/finisher, he's not necessarily great at generating for teammates.

Of course, there are the monster peripherals as well. If he can skate 19-20 minutes, that likely means a shot rate over three per game, and that's a great number. He can also put up roughly 1 PIM and 1.5 hits per game. If we're looking at roughly 40 games from Kane, getting 120 shots, 40 PIMs, and 60-plus hits seems in order. That is a very good start.

All that remains his how much he actually scores. Assuming he can get top PP minutes, well, Zach Hyman is on pace for a career-best in goals despite a four-year low in shooting percentage. That is what playing all your minutes with McDavid can do. It isn't unrealistic to say that Kane can score 20 goals in 40 games the rest of the way. The big question is what they do with the power play; a heavily-used top unit with Kane on it means huge upside. Some sort of split-unit where McDavid/Draisaitl play both halves but they change up the wingers will dampen things.

Despite the caveats, it wouldn't be surprising to see Kane go 20/20 the rest of the way with 120 shots, 40 PIMs, and 60 hits. Just keep an eye on his power-play usage.

With that lineup, by the way, it seems Jesse Puljujarvi is going to take a hit here. He is going to be used more in a defensive role and if they use a heavy top PP unit, he could lose those minutes too. He stands to lose a lot of fantasy value in the back half of the season. The same could be said of Zach Hyman, but he appears to be higher in the pecking order at the moment.

Of course, the elephant in the room is how he'll fare in the locker room. But that is nothing we can quantify or measure, and it's up to the Oilers to lay in their bed now, for better and worse.