The Edmonton Oilers acquired Vasily Podkolzin on Aug. 18, 2024, from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a fourth-round pick in 2025 (114th overall).

The Oilers actually re-acquired the pick from Vancouver when the Oilers traded Evander Kane to Vancouver on Day 2 of the 2025 NHL Entry Draft. To date, the trade has worked out extremely well for the Oilers and Podkolzin, and with each passing game, it looks better and better.

Podkolzin set a new career high with his 15th goal of the season last night. All of his goals have come at five-on-five, and last night, he showed a great burst of speed to blow through two Vegas defenders and beat Adin Hill.

Podkolzin is tied for 37th in five-on-five goals with Mikko Rantanen and Kirill Marchenko. He is one back of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl for the lead on the Oilers. Podkolzin’s five-on-five scoring rates this season are almost identical to Zach Hyman’s.

This is Podkolzin’s third full NHL season. He did split two seasons between the NHL and AHL, so it is his fifth season in North America. He is only 24 years old, and how much more production he will have in the future is unknown. When Hyman was 24, he was in his first full NHL season with the Maple Leafs and tallied six goals five-on-five and 10 overall. At ages 25-27 he scored 13, 14, anfd 12 goals five-on-five and finished those seasons with 15, 21 and 21 goals. Hyman continued to improve and at age 29 he made his Oilers’ debut by scoring 19 goals five-on-five and 27 overall. Since then, he’s become one of the top goal scorers at five-on-five and overall ranks 12th in five-on-five goals with 101 goals and 17th overall with 171 goals.

I’m not saying Podkolzin is a lock to match Hyman’s production. That will be difficult, especially the 54-goal campaign, but at age 24 no one thought Hyman would score 54 goals one season and become such a consistent goal-scoring threat. Podkolzin is ahead of Hyman’s production at age 24, and right now Podkolzin is one of the best value contracts in the NHL with 15 goals and a $1m AAV.

I asked Oilers general manager Stan Bowman whether his expectations of Podkolzin were when he acquired him, and has it changed now?

“We believed he could be a steady, hardworking winger who played with some physicality,” said Bowman. “Our hopes (at time of the trade) were that he could play in the bottom six and give us some good, hard-working minutes. Pods has fulfilled those expectations and become a very valuable player for us. His importance has been elevated because of his competitiveness and straight forward approach to the game. As the games get bigger in the second half, his value shines even brighter.

“He plays a simple, straightforward brand of hockey that’s desperately needed by our team. He leads the way in that regard, and he embraces his role probably better than any other player. He can handle the puck and possess it when leaned on, but his true value is a willingness to manage it well and get to the net. As the schedule turns to March it’s more and more important to do that. He doesn’t try high-risk plays. You know he’s going to advance the puck and forecheck and impose his will on the other team.

“He doesn’t try for the highlight-reel hit…he’s content just making contact consistently and getting pucks to the net. His work rate is impressive. He never quits on a play and even when he’s dead tired, he finds a way to disrupt plays with a second and third effort. The coaches know he can help reset our team when we get too fancy and careless. Pods plays very consistently and can drag our guys into the battle with his simple and straightforward approach. It’s winning hockey and he has emerged as a valuable piece to the forward group because of that.”

Head coach Kris Knoblauch trusts him. Podkolzin has played the sixth-most five-on-five minutes among Oilers, and third most among forwards. Part of that is due to him playing every game, while Zach Hyman, Jack Roslovic and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins have missed time, but Podkolzin has become someone Knoblauch trusts, and the coach sees his offensive capabilities.

“His offensive game has improved during his time with the team, most of it due to confidence,” Knoblauch said. “The more opportunities a player gets, the more comfortable he is and it allows him to make more plays than he did when he started with us. Also, Vasily spends a lot of time working on the details of his game. Every practice he spends time on his shooting and puck-handling skills. Pods is a player coaches love to have on your team. His game is very consistent, and he brings his A game almost every night. I can rely on him for defensive assignments. He brings a lot of physical play, and he has emerged as one of our top 5v5 goal scorers.”

In the salary-cap era, good teams need a few players to produce more than their contract expects them to. Podkolzin is one of those players for the Oilers.

The only NHL players with an AAV of $1-million or less who have scored 15 goals at five-on-five this season include Podkolzin (15), Oliver Kapanen (16 and $925K), Beckett Sennecke (17 and $942.5K), Cutter Gauthier (20 and $950K) and Macklin Celebrini (20 and $975K). All of them, except Podkolzin, have performance bonuses. Bowman has already signed Podkolzin to a three-year, $2.95m AAV that begins next season, and if he continues to score 18-21 goals five-on-five each year, he will still be a value contract.

Podkolzin looks like he is capable of becoming the left-wing version of Zach Hyman, at least in terms of his dogged determination, his excellent forechecking skills and his five-on-five scoring. In the future could he replace Hyman as the net front presence on the powerplay?

He might, but right now the Podkolzin trade has been one of the best trades in Oilers history, considering the low cost of acquiring him, and it might turn out to be the best as his production and impact on games increases.