TALKING POINTS: Bowman discusses Kane's surgery & its impact moving forward

Oilers General Manager & Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Stan Bowman held a media availability in Chicago on Friday afternoon after the announcement earlier in the morning that forward Evander Kane underwent knee surgery on Thursday.

The executive discussed the timetable for Kane's recovery, including his abdominal surgery back in September, the impact of the winger's procedure on his plans to improve the team, the performance of the Oilers over the first half of the season, and more.

Read the full transcript & watch the full media availability below:

Bowman on the clarity provided on Evander Kane’s status following the announcement of his recent knee surgery:

“Yeah, he had the procedure, which we talked about and he talked about, so we’re happy that it went well and he's feeling good. So as far as the next steps, I think we still don't have that mapped out quite yet, and I think we'll just have to wait and see how it goes. But he is going to have to get his knee back to normal so that he can resume his other rehab from his [abdominal surgery in September]. So I guess it is some clarity – this was something that was bothering him and we had to get fixed – but the bigger question as far as when he's going to return, we don't have that info yet.”

Bowman on the 4 Nations Face-Off serving as a chance for the Oilers to evaluate Kane's recovery and what the next steps might look like:

“Yeah, that’s about a month away. We should know more at that point when we get to 4 Nations as far as how he's feeling, how much he's able to do, and where he's at relative to his original rehab, so I would expect us to have some more info probably at that point about a month from now.”

Bowman on his pro scouting meetings and the plan of attack in terms of the salary cap with or without Kane being healthy:

“I would say it's still status quo. I guess ever since the summer, we've been planning to accrue cap space. I think we've been able to do a good job of that this year. Fortunately, we haven't had many injuries, so we’ve had a lean roster intentionally. Nothing's really changed on that front, so we did have our meetings to identify players that would be of interest to our group, and we had them a little bit earlier than normal because there is the 4 Nations break. So looking at the schedule, we've got about a month of games, and we want our scouts to target those players [we like]. We spent a while going through each team and players that might interest us – also if they might or might not be available – but we have a bigger list right now, so the goal is to go out and watch them play, see who we really are excited about, and then in conjunction with that, I'm going to start connecting with managers to see where they're at.

“I think right now, when you look at the standings, there's a lot of teams that are still in the hunt. Almost everybody in the league, with the exception maybe of a couple of teams, probably think they can make it [to the playoffs], so I'm not sure who the sellers are going to be yet, which is why we're in the early stages of that. But we had a good couple of days where we really spent time talking about our team to date, who's played well, and areas we would like to upgrade if possible, but the cap space is still a question, and we're still operating under the assumption that Evander will be back.

"If he's not back, then that calculus changes, but right now, we don't have enough information to make that judgment.”

Bowman on if he’s gathered enough information already about his team to make decisions about what areas can be addressed:

“Yeah, I think if you watch our team over the last six to eight weeks or so, I think we've found a pretty good rhythm, and a couple of things can change over the second part of the season here. Number one, you can have injuries – so if you don't have your full group together, then you have to look at what might that look like. Where do we want to shore up our depth situations? But also with the players, maybe they don't play as well as they have, but I've been pretty happy across the board with the group. So it's really more fine-tuning than it is making dramatic shifts to our team.”

“I think we like the roles the guys have settled into now as we’ve found our game as a team, and we're a little bit more organized than we were early in the season. It took some time to sort that out, but I think now, as we look ahead, it's just trying to figure out, ‘Okay, what would be nice to add if we can, and once we identify that, can we add to it? Are those players available? What is the price?’

"So there's a lot of steps that go into that, and we're kind of in the beginning of that stage.”

Bowman on factoring dressing room chemistry when thinking about a player they want to add to the roster:

“I think we've got a great group of guys here. I've had a chance to get to know them now. I feel like I have a good understanding of this group. There's lot of chemistry with this group. They seem to love playing together, and it's a really great vibe around the team, which is fun to see because if you don't have that, sometimes it's hard to get everybody going in the same direction. But that's not a problem here.

“As far as bringing other elements in, in some ways, that’s tough to know unless you have some inside info one of our players played with a guy or if you don't really know what they're like in a locker room. But I don't think we're lacking a locker room presence. I think we've got a great group here, so it's really more about what skills they bring to the table that would probably be the focus more than anything.”