Oilers' Vasily Podkolzin is hard at work this offseason. His skills coach Ned Lukacevic sent me this vid and said this: "Pods' shot is looking extremely good. He looks lighter on his skates. He looks graceful with his movements from edge to edge. Powerful but very smooth"
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Vasily Podkolzin working on ‘Hyman-esque drills’ in offseason training: ‘He’s an animal out there’
Photo credit: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Aug 21, 2026, 09:00 EDTUpdated: Aug 21, 2026, 00:13 EDT
Nobody can question Vasily Podkolzin’s work ethic.
Over his two-season tenure with the Edmonton Oilers, we’ve seen Podkolzin be one of the first players on the ice before practices, stay afterwards to fine-tune his skills, and put in the work to improve his game during the off-season.
Podkolzin has worked with his skills coach Ned Lukacevic over the last few off-seasons, and that continued this summer when the two recently put in some training sessions together. We checked in with Lukacevic to see how their sessions went.
Q: Tell me about the training sessions you recently had with Podkolzin. How long were the sessions?
“We got around 12 sessions in, and they went very well. We’d work together on the ice for one hour, one-on-one training, and we’d go very hard.
“He’d come in after the gym. He works out down the road in Burnaby with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ brother, who is a big trainer in Vancouver. He trains there, and then he comes and trains on the ice with me afterwards.
“And it’s just full throttle. There are no breaks. There’s no talking. We do the reps and run through the practice.”
Q: What type of drills did you guys work on?
“We did a lot of work on wall play and down-low play. Very Zach-Hyman-esque type of work. So with that, we worked on a lot of deflections, a lot of tips, and working in the tight areas.
“We also did puck-handling work with the Power Edge Pro (PEP) training aid, just like Connor McDavid does, working on quick drills and reaction time, working on his offensive instincts, creativity and edge work, and all of that goes hand-in-hand with the PEP training.”
Q: Have you used the Power Edge Pro training aid with Podkolzin in the past?
“That specific drill with PEP, no. We’ve done some of it in the past, but mostly to warm up.
“But we focused more on it this time around. It’s good for reaction time, edge work, deceptiveness and creativity. It’s also great for conditioning, because you can do like nine or 10 reps in a row and you’re bagged. So those are killer workouts for him. We worked a lot on his conditioning in the sessions, too. It’s a lot of one-on-one, so there’s naturally not a lot of breaks.
“I said to him the other day, ‘Let me know if you need a break,’ and he said, ‘No, no, Ned, I need this. I need the conditioning. This is good.’
“But we rarely talk in those sessions. He just goes…and he’s never once said no to a drill. He just wants to work. He puts his head down, and he works.”
Q: Is there something he specifically said he wants to get better at?
“He wants to keep getting better on wall play, and there was a lot of focus and big emphasis on that and also around the net…He refers to a lot of those types of drills as ‘Hyman-esque.’
“Like, ‘Let’s do a Hyman tip,’ ‘Let’s do a Hyman redirect.’ So, he looks up to Hyman. And he knows that if he can keep adding layers to his game, he can add extra offence, like more of a scoring touch around the net.
Oilers’ Vasily Podkolzin is putting in some offseason work. Here, he’s getting some reps in on wall play at his skills coach Ned Lukacevic’s camp. Lukacevic also told me Podkolzin is flying out there 🔥 Video courtesy of: nedlukacevichockey on insta
“He also said he wants his hands to feel a little smoother. He said his hands hadn’t felt the best, but you can’t tell because they look awesome. He just wants to feel more comfortable handling the puck in tight spaces. Not that he’s not comfortable — he just wants to improve and refine in that area of his game.
“And quite honestly, he looks strong, he looks lighter on his skates, he looks graceful out on the ice…But overall, he’s working hard. He’s a f**kin’ animal out there.”
Q: You mentioned last year that when you guys trained before, you and Podkolzin focused on drills for him to play with Draisaitl. Was there a focus like that this time around?
“When we do shooting drills, the shooting drills are catered specifically to where Pods might get the puck from him.
“But overall, we practiced more of different areas of game plays as a whole, like I rimmed the puck to him behind the net. He’s getting the puck off the wall in the D-zone. We also mimic different game situation scenarios so when it’s game time, he’s more comfortable getting into different spots.
“I also challenged him in different ways. I said to him, ‘Pick the puck off of the wall, bank it off the wall to yourself and spin.’
“In a way, that just adds different tools in his tool belt, so he has that muscle memory and has it in his repertoire. But mostly, we’re getting him ready for the season with his conditioning, also his confidence and feel of the puck. And just making sure he feels good in different areas of his game.”
Q: You sent me a video of you and Podkolzin working on one-timers. Have you guys worked on one-timers before?
“We’ve done shooting drills, but not specifically a lot of one-timers. But he’s got a great shot. His shot is very hard.
“So, I try to tell him, maybe you get one or two goals off of tips, maybe you get two or three goals off of a backhand, maybe you get two or three Hyman-esque goals, maybe four a year on one-timers, and so on, and then you add it up at the end of the year.
“And instead of 19 goals, maybe you’ve scored 25 goals now.
Ned Lukacevic sent me a peek at him and Vasily Podkolzin working on one-timers. Nobody does it quite like Draisaitl from his office, but perhaps Podkolzin could give the Oilers another option on PP2 from that spot.
“That’s why we’re trying to add in different areas where he can slightly improve or feel more comfortable. If he’s comfortable with one-timers, he’ll take a lot more of them.”
Q: What I noticed in that video of the one-timers is that he’s not taking full wind-ups like Alex Ovechkin does. He’s kind of taking those quick, Draisaitl-esque one-timer shots. Is that intentional?
“Yes, he’s literally shooting like Leon Draisaitl. He shows me how Draisaitl shoots.
“He’ll say, ‘I’m going to try this because I know it works.’ And he’ll tell me, ‘Leo holds his stick like this, Ned!’ And his hands will go so close together. And I’ll say, ‘Oh, really?’ and he’ll confidently nod, ‘Yes.’
“He’s a student of the game, and that’s why he’s shooting like that. He’s seen it work many times.”
Q: You mentioned, in our texts, that “He’s flying out there.” What are you seeing that makes you say that?
“He just looks quicker out there. I’ve mentioned he looks more graceful and lighter on his feet, and I also feel his hands and body are a little more connected.
Oilers’ Vasily Podkolzin offseason training update: I asked skills coach Ned Lukacevic how Podkolzin is looking at their workouts together.. His response: “He’s flying. He's working hard as f**k."
“Like I said, though, some of it has to do with confidence. I think he knows now that he’s a big part of the Oilers and he brings a lot of value. At the same time, he has a lot of humility.”
Q: Was there a drill specifically that you felt Podkolzin needed to work on?
“Just his wall work, and the wall play. That’s one area in the NHL: if you want to play, you have to get pucks off the wall quickly…There are drills where I’m rimming the puck, and he’ll tell me, ‘Harder!’ And I’m hammering them.”
Q: This question is for you. How has the summer looked for you overall, and where will you be coaching next season?
“I’ve been working with other NHL players. I’ve worked with Mark Scheifele for a couple of sessions. Brenden Dillon from the New Jersey Devils came to train, Logan Stankoven again, Danton Heinen and a bunch of AHL players, and, of course, Podkolzin.
Ned Lukacevic training with Mark Scheifele and Brenden Dillon. Photo credit: @nedlukacevichockey on Instagram.
“For next season, I’ll continue to coach at the BWC Academy. It’s a good situation for me there. I’ll continue working with my pros, and when my kids get a little older, I hope to take an opportunity somewhere in the big leagues. In the meantime, I’ll keep plugging away.”
Q: Last question, is there an aspect of Podkolzin’s game that you think could surprise Oilers fans this upcoming season?
“I think last year we kind of saw it, and it’s his speed. I think he surprised people, and there are instances where people said, ‘Whoa, Podkolzin is fast!’
“He’s a very powerful skater, in a straight line and side to side. And let’s call it what it is, he’s a great player on a great team. And he’s at a point now where he’d be a great player on any team.
“He’s a Swiss Army knife type of player, and if the Oilers get to the Cup Finals this year, he’s going to be one of the main reasons. He’s ready to play. Podkolzin is hungry to win.”
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Edmonton OilersTeam Cap Summary
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