This in from top Edmonton Oilers insider Bob Stauffer, his suggestion on Oilers Now that Edmonton Top 4 d-man Jake Walman is in line for a new six-year deal, while winger Vasily Podkolzin will sign for three years.
Stauffer said he had no opinion on new Oilers third jerseys, but he did have some guesses about the team itself. “I’d have a better handle of who the Oilers might be going out and acquiring. You know, who they might get extended. I could see Jake Walman getting a six-year extension at some point in the sixes. I could see that happen. Maybe Podkolzin gets a three-year.”
In early August Stauffer had reported that Walman might get eight years, saying, “There is something that the Oilers can do that nobody else can do, and it maybe might relates more to a guy like Jake Walman. But they could offer an eight-year contract extension, and we have shorter terms coming to the next CBA, which takes place next summer.”
At that time, Oilers GM Stan Bowman confirmed there had been conversations with the agents for both Walman and 35-year-old Mattias Ekholm and he hoped to get deals done. “When you identify players that you like, that you think there’s a future for, and they can help your team, not only in the coming year, but in the years beyond that, then I think it makes sense to try to get something done. So that’s going to be something that we do over the next month, month and a half leading into training camp.”
Through the summer, Stauffer also talked about a possible new deal for Vasily Podkolzin, now 24.
Roster
My take
1. I’m a big fan of both Walman and Podkolzin, two strong two-way players who are also physical. Walman’s skill passing and shooting isn’t elite but it’s top drawer, easily good enough for him to get the job done in the 2025 playoffs as a Top 4 d-man. He outplayed everyone on the Oilers blueline in the playoffs save for Evan Bouchard.
Podkolzin was also good in both the regular season and the playoffs, playing a strong forechecking and backchecking game, showing the determination to hit hard but also the skill to make plays. He became something of a folk hero in Edmonton, earning the nickname Podzilla.
2. I love the idea of Podkolzin on a three-year deal. I know some will fear he’ll fade, just as former Oilers grinder Klim Kostin did after he got a two-year deal and big raise to go play in Detroit. There is that danger. But there’s also a possibility that Poddkolzin plays with ever increasing confidence and starts to put up more points. He’s a big, fast and aggressive forward, which fills a major need for the Oilers. He earned minutes on Leon Draisaitl’s wing last year. I fully expect that to happen again this year.
3. I’m good with the notion of a six-year deal for Walman at somewhere in the $6 million per season range, even as I wasn’t keen on the notion of giving Walman an eight-year deal. Maybe the notion was to stretch out and lower the annual cap hit so that Walman was affordable for the Oilers. But giving a 30 year-old d-man (which Walman would be in the first year of his new deal) a big-money eight-year deal is a stretch in the NHL, at least if you’re expecting that player to perform as a Top 4 d-man for the majority of that deal.
4. NHL d-men start to fall off in terms of performance after age 30, then they crash off the cliff at age 25.
For example, there were twenty-four d-men in the NHL born in 1996, just like Walman, who played the 2024-25 regular season. Ten of these 27 and 28-year-olds played in a Top 4 role.
At $3.4 million per year, Walman was underpaid last year. He will be underpaid this year at age 29 for such a high level of performance. That’s another reason this was such a good trade for the Oilers acquiring him from San Jose, just as Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are peaking and hungry for a Stanley Cup win.
5. Walman is a good bet to play well in a Top 4 role this coming year. At 29, he’s in the prime of life for an NHL d-man. The same goes for next year — the first year of any new deal for Walman, at least if we go by the average NHL d-man.
There were twenty-nine 30-year-old d-men in the NHL last year, with 18 of them playing in a Top 4 role. But after age 30 there’s a major drop off. In the 31-to-34 year-old age group, we see a 25 per cent drop off in the number of Top 4 d-men compared to the 27-to-30 year old category (see chart below).
age
6. Walman could well drop off due to age and injury, but he’s still a decent bet to be playing Top 4 d-man hockey at ages 31, 32, 33 and maybe even 34. That’s how old Ekholm was last season and he certainly played strong Top 4 hockey, at least until a series of core injuries took some juice out of his game.
7. At age 35 and up, only the rarest of NHL d-men, players like Brent Burns, Drew Doughty, Ryan McDonagh, Chris Tanev and Kris Letang, continued to play at Top 4 level in 2024-25.
Walman isn’t likely in that star category, so while it’s an OK-ish bet, say a 66 per cent chance, that he’d play Top 4 hockey in the first five years of a new contract, it’s a terrible bet in the years after that. But if you get five strong years out of him during McDavid and Draisaitl’s prime, that would be good value for the team.
At the Cult of Hockey
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Cult of Hockey prospect series 2025
Forwards: Maxim Berezkin (3rd), Josh Samanski (5th), Quinn Hutson (6th), William Nicholl (9th), Roby Jarventie (11th), Viljami Marjala (12th), Connor Clattenburg (13th), Tommy Lafreniere (14th). David Lewandowski (15th)
Dmen: Alec Regula (4th) Beau Akey (7th-tie) Atro Leppanen (10th) Paul Fischer (16th), Nikita Yevseyev (18th), Asher Barnett (19th)
Goalies: Samuel Jonsson (7th-tie), Nathaniel Day (17th), Eemil Vinni (20th)