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If the Oilers can trade Kane the Penguins can trade this awful player

The Edmonton Oilers somehow found a way to get a team to take Evander Kane off of their hands and get out of the rest of his contract. If they can do that, the Penguins can find a taker for Graves.
ByTyler Miller|
Jun 6, 2025; Edmonton, Alberta, CAN; Florida Panthers left wing Tomas Nosek (92) skates with the puck past Edmonton Oilers left wing Evander Kane (91) during the first period in game two of the 2025 Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place. Mandatory Credit: Perry Nelson-Imagn Images
Jun 6, 2025; Edmonton, Alberta, CAN; Florida Panthers left wing Tomas Nosek (92) skates with the puck past Edmonton Oilers left wing Evander Kane (91) during the first period in game two of the 2025 Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place. Mandatory Credit: Perry Nelson-Imagn Images | Perry Nelson-Imagn Images

On Wednesday, the Vancouver Canucks acquired Evander Kane from the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for their 4th-round pick in tonight's first-round of the NHL Draft. It did not seem likely that the Oilers would find a taker for Kane as he has on-ice and off-ice issues and tends to be a negative on each team he plays on.

But the Canucks bailed them out as they have been looking for some goal-scoring as when Kane is on his game and at his best, he can provide that. But a lot of his off-ice issues raise concerns as last season the Canucks tailored with their roster because of off-ice issues.

If the Oilers can find someone to take a player of Kane's caliber off of their hands, Kyle Dubas can find a way to make a team take Ryan Graves and his poor play off of his hands.

Kyle Dubas fleeced San Jose years ago for Karlsson and he can do the same again with dealing Graves

When the Penguins acquired Erik Karlsson a few years ago from the San Jose Sharks, Kyle Dubas was able to get out of a lot of the bad contracts that were on the team like Mikael Granlund and Jan Rutta among others.

Graves has a bad contract for the next few years and over the last couple seasons has been nearly unplayable as he makes way too many errors and looks lost on the ice.

Dubas should never say never and see if he can truly find a team to take Graves and his bad contract off of his hands as it will also give the Penguins more cap flexability for the 2026 season.

It is not impossible for Dubas to get this done, he just needs to find someone to trust that Graves can turn it around, as Pittsburgh is not the place for him to do that.

The Kane trade and trying to trade Graves are two different scenarios

The Canucks helped the Oilers out by taking Kane from them because they believe in Kane turning it around and getting over the off-ice issues and really helping out on the scoresheet.

It also made sense because Kane only has one more year left on his deal and if Kane does not do much for the Canucks this upcoming season, it is no big deal and they can let him walk.

Graves is very poor defensively and still has a few years left on his contract. Having a few years left at a 4.5 million cap hit, could really drive teams away.

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