If anyone would have suggested last summer that new Edmonton Oilers GM Stan Bowman’s four big deals — trading for Vancouver cast-away Vasily Podkolzin and Detroit cast-away Jake Walman, claiming Kasperi Kapanen on waivers, and signing chronically-injured John Klingberg — would play a massive role in powering the Oilers to the 2025 Stanley Cup Final, no one would have believed it.
First off, no one imagined Bowman would bring in such players.
Second, no one imagined any of them had it in them to be such key components of this deep and grinding Oilers team.
But here we are about to start the Final, with the Oilers having ruthlessly and forcefully dispatched two powerhouse teams, the Vegas Golden Knights and the Dallas Stars, and Bowman’s four Mystery Men acquisitions are helping to lead the way.
They have all been vital players at even strength in the playoffs, Podkolzin and Kapanen with aggressive hitting, strong board work and industrious backchecking and forechecking, Klingberg and Walman with exceptional puck-moving and sound positional defence.
Coach Kris Knoblauch has trusted Klingberg and Walman so much they’ve been his most used defensive pairing. As for Podzilla and Kapanen, they’ve regularly been bumped up to play with star forward Leon Draisaitl.
Walman and Klingberg are the third and fourth best Oilers d-men in the playoffs when it comes to Grade A shots plus-minus at even strength (after Evan Bouchard and Brett Kulak), while Podkolzin and Kapanen are the third and fourth best Oilers wingers in the same category (after injured Zach Hyman and Corey Perry).
Not bad for four hockey players with uncertain NHL futures heading into the 2024-25 season.
stats
Who are these Mystery Men?
Podkolzin, age 23, cap hit $1,000,000. Podkolzin was the 10th overall pick in the 2019 draft, but after a decent rookie season with Vancouver he bounced between the Canucks and their Abbotsford farm team. Coach Rick Tocchet never took a shine to the grinder, allowing Bowman to scoop up the winger for a fourth round pick in late August after Edmonton lost big, young and skilled Dylan Holloway to a St. Louis offer sheet.
Podkolzin scored just eight goals and 24 points in 82 games for the Oilers, but won over the fans and his teammates with his hustle, unselfish passing, ferocious hitting and sound defence. He’s kept up the strong play in the playoffs with six points in 16 games and the tenth highest hit rate in the playoffs, 25.5 hits per 60 minutes.
Kapanen, age 28, cap hit $1,000,000. Kasperi Kapanen was a first round pick 22nd overall in 2014, and looked like he might be a Top 6 winger when he scored 20 goals for Toronto in 2018-19. But he failed to stick in Toronto, Pittsburgh or St. Louis, who put him on waivers last fall.
Bowman scooped him for the waiver fee. Kapanen was inconsistent and had defensive lapses in limited minutes for Edmonton in the regular season. But Knoblauch thrust him into the playoffs against VGK when the coach thought the Oilers needed more speed and hitting. I doubted the move would work. I was incorrect.
Kapanen has played inspired hockey in seven playoff games, scoring three goals, one of them an overtime winner. He’s buzzing around like the Second Coming of Eddie Shack. He’s got the 21st highest playoff hit rate, 20.3 per 60.
Klingberg, 32, cap hit, $1,755,056. Bad and painful hips reduced Klingberg from a star NHLer with Dallas from 2014-22 to a wash-out in Toronto by November 2023. Luke Fox of Sportsnet wrote at the time of Klingberg: “He’s in the mud, the analytics and eye test are his twin enemies, and he has swiftly become the fan base’s whipping boy.”
When Bowman signed him in Edmonton in mid-January 2025, I thought the move could be a win-win for the player and the team, but there was no shortage of doubters and they only grew in voice and number as the regular season played out. Klingberg got off to a rocky start here, largely due to rust and a new injury from blocking a shot. But his quick moves and pin-point passing have been top drawer in the playoffs.
Walman, 29, cap hit, $3.4 million. A year ago at the NHL draft, the Detroit Red Wings thought so little of Walman that they moved him and his contract out for “future considerations,” with Detroit throwing in a second round pick so San Jose would take on the player’s cap hit.
Walman excelled in San Jose early this year, but he was rarely mentioned as a trade target. Bowman scooped him up for a first round pick and he’s been a dynamic, aggressive and useful Top 4 d-man since the day he arrived in Edmonton, continuing his run of strong play into the playoffs.
The extra good news? Walman and Podkolzin each have a year left on their contracts so they’ll almost certainly be Oilers next season as well.
As for Bowman, he’s making his mark in Edmonton by finding useful bargains in trades, claims and signings. This is exactly what the Oilers need to fill in around their star players on long-term deals.
It’s too early to say that Bowman has covered himself in glory in his first year as GM — we won’t know for sure about that for a few weeks — but his shrewd acquisitions have played a huge role in giving Edmonton a shot at Stanley Cup glory.