When Edmonton Oilers GM Stan Bowman took a flier on Vasily Podkolzin in August of 2024, a few weeks after officially joining the team, giving up a stocking stuffer fourth-round draft pick to Vancouver, a lot of people went “yeah, whatever.”

Podkolzin was spinning his wheels with the Canucks, unable to gain much traction with coach Rick Tocchet. He looked like so many first-round draft picks who needed a change of scenery, with low-bar expectations..That it was a rival basically giving away Podkolzin to the Oilers seemed odd. But, then again, Podkolzin had played just two of the Canucks’ seven 2024 games in their playoff series against the Oilers few months earlier, and he got minimal ice-time.

Now? Bowman should be sowing his gloats.

Podkolzin scored his 15th goal Sunday in Vegas, all even-strength, one game after ripping a shot over the shoulder of Carolina goalie Fredrik Andersen from a bad angle. The goal against Adin Hill in Vegas was a second eye-opener, showing off his feet after his hands the game before. He burst between Rasmus Andersson and Jeremy Lauzon, leaving them in the starting blocks, 100 feet from the Golden Knights tender. He squeezed a shot past Hill, a worth highlight reel goal.

“Just got a couple of steps on their D, that’s what happening,” said Podkolzin, talking in the Oiler dressing room post-game after hitting 15 goals, the most goals he’s had in a single NHL season, and his 15 ES are only one back of his centre Leon Draisaitl.

He’s got the same 15 five-on-five goals as Dallas’ winger Mikko Rantanen, if we’re tossing out other stars on other teams.

Maybe we’ve been so caught up in Podkolzin’s work along the boards, his physical strength usually alongside Draisaitl, we haven’t noticed that his top speed this season is 23.11 which puts him in the 89thpercentile of NHL skaters. He’s worked on his acceleration, clearly, going from from 21.74 when the Oilers traded for him.

While the Canucks gave him away basically, 31 other teams would trade for him in a heartbeat today and they would be offering up a lot more than a fourth-rounder. He’s the ultimate straight-line, tough as nails player, built for the playoffs. He has 29 regular-season points and is +15. No other forward has a better plus/minus.

“Just trying to put myself in position for some good moments. Just lucky,” said the self-effacing Podkolzin of his career high 15 snipes.

He’s tied with Lauzon for hits (190), 11th-most in the NHL. He crushed Vegas D-man Shea Theodore into the end boards in the 4-2 win in the desert around high terrific goal. New Oiler Colton Dach is 10th with 194 hits, if keeping count.

Podkolzin has played the fourth most minutes (971:27) of any Oiler forward, behind Connor McDavid, Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. He’s third in ES forward minutes (913:15) behind 97 and 29. He’s got 29 points, 28 ES, one assist on the PP.

He’s played a grand total of 7:05 on the PP in 64 games.

And he’s making $1 million before his three-year extension with an AAV of $2.95 million kicks in next season. Every other veteran forward is making more than Podkolzin right now. The only every-day F making less is rookie Matt Savoie.

Best bang for the buck on not just his team but pretty much every NHL team.

Crushed can

The Avalanche won’t have captain Gabe Landeskog Tuesday against the Oilers after he took some not-so-friendly fire from teammate Cale Makar this past Friday. A Makar ripper, in a fantastic game against Dallas, hit Landeskog, who has 29 points in 47 games, in the crotch and he may be out until April.

Post-game Landeskog, who also wore the C for the Swedes in the Olympics, showed off a dent in his protective cup the size of a puck.

“It’s a lower-body injury and not a comfortable one. Week to week is the time frame the doctors gave us,” said Avs’ coach Jared Bednar.

Reminded one and all of the 2016 night ex-Oilers winger Matt Hendricks, now an assistant GM with the Minnesota Wild took one in the groin from Dallas’ Alex Goligoski and his cup was folded up like a beer can.

“Good thing that company (Nike and Russell Athletic) made a solid product, that’s a vital area,” kidded Hendricks afterwards. “Saved my bacon.”

Hockey game face

St. Albert’s Troy Murray, who passed away Saturday, was a no-holds-barred player, who made life miserable for opposing players, either checking or hitting. At the 1982 U20 world junior, where he was team captain, Murray flattened one-time Oiler Raimo Summanen in a Canada-Finland game.

“Troy was responsible for a nickname in Finnish hockey that is still being used…Raato,” said fine local Finnish newspaper hockey scribe Jouni Nieminen.

“That’s ‘Raato’ as in Roadkill. He hit Raimo when Summanen wasn’t expecting it and Summanen didn’t get up. The other Finns started calling him Raato. And do still.”

The winger Summanen, who turned 64 last week, played five playoff games in 1984, the Oilers’ first Cup year and had five points. After his playing career ended, he went on to become the Finnish national team coach.

This ‘n that: Brett Kulak, on his third team in the last three months, is in the third D pair for the Avs with Sam Malinski. He’s averaging 17:27 a game for Colorado after the Avs traded Sam Girard to get the former Oiler defenceman. Kulak is doing a fair bit of PK work in Colorado, playing 11 minutes here in his seven games… Dach, who got his first Oilers point in Vegas, after the Chicago trade last week, deserved more than 5:05 ice time against the Golden Knights. Pretty clear he’s an energy guy. Sitting on the bench for all but nine shifts, seemed counter-productive… The Avs are rolling, without not just Landeskog, but valuable support forward Arturri Lehkonen and a third winger Logan O’Connor. Lehkonen, who was on Finland’s Olympic team, took a puck up high in a game against Los Angeles March 2 and is out week to week… Nazem Kadri may be on RW with Nate MacKinnon and Martin Necas, rather than centre with the Oilers in Denver Tuesday… Former Oilers defenceman and current Oil Kings’ player development coach Ladislav Smid will be returning his homeland next season to be the assistant coach for Sparta Prague. Smid was an assistant coach on Czechia’s world junior team last season… Ex-NHLer and media personality Matt Kassian has given up his commentator gig to go and work for the Oilers. Kassian has been working for the investment firm Raymond James in the sports advisory business looking after pensions and such with retired NHL players… Oilers farmhand D Beau Akey took a knee-on-knee hit this past weekend against Tucson but it doesn’t appear to be a long-term thing… Bakersfield goalie Matt Tomkins has four shutouts now, third-most in the AHL. Tampa farmhand Brett Halverson (six) and ex-Oil King and Detroit’s top prospect Sebastian Cossa (five) are ahead of Tomkins… Overlooked in the Kadri trade to Colorado was Calgary picking up the negotiating rights to injured Oil Kings’ centre Max Curran. Curran, who was WHL’s Scholastic Player of the Year last season, is off to UMass Amherst in the fall. The Czech-born Curran, who had a big world junior for his country over the Christmas break, is out for the rest of the regular season and the playoffs with shoulder surgery — a considerable blow to the Oil Kings’ playoff chances with possible matchups with both Prince Albert and Medicine Hat. The Oil Kings whipped the Tigers 6-1 Saturday and lost 4-3 to the Raiders Sunday.

Related

Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.

You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun.