Can the Oilers Expect Vasily Podkolzin to Heat up After 1st Goal?

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It took one-quarter of the 2024-25 NHL schedule, but at last, Vasily Podkolzin has his first regular-season goal as a member of the Edmonton Oilers.

The Russian winger, who joined the Oilers via an offseason trade with the Vancouver Canucks, opened the scoring in Edmonton’s 6-2 victory over the New York Rangers at Rogers Place on Saturday (Nov. 23).

With around two and a half minutes remaining in the first period, Edmonton broke into the Rangers’ zone, where Podkolzin took a pass from teammate Leon Draisaitl and wired a shot from the top of the face-off dot to the right of netminder Jonathan Quick.

With a ping that reverberated throughout the arena, the puck deflected off the bottom of the crossbar and landed in the back of the net, sending the crowd to its feet. Podkolzin simply raised his stick and gazed skyward, a portrait of emancipation.

Vasily Podkolzin Edmonton Oilers
Vasily Podkolzin, Edmonton Oilers (Photo by Andy Devlin/NHLI via Getty Images)

The goal ended a drought of 41 regular season games dating back to March 2023 when Podkolzin was with the Canucks. He now has one goal to go with five assists in 22 games this season.

“Finally,” Podkolzin said when he spoke with media after the game. “It took much longer than I thought. But sometimes God gives you challenges in life for being a better hockey player or a better person, so I’m happy with it and I’ll just keep working.”

Podkolzin Has Shown Potential

Podkolzin has proven a fascinating case in Edmonton thus far. He’s only been part of the Oilers organization for just over three months, after being dealt from the Canucks in exchange for a 2025 fourth-round draft pick on Aug. 18.

Related: 5 Things to Know About New Oilers Forward Vasily Podkolzin

His acquisition generated some excitement among Oilers fans, who saw an undeniably skilled player who was a high draft pick (10th overall in 2019), is still young (23), and has flashed potential (14 goals as a rookie in 2021-22) still waiting to be fully tapped.

There were moments throughout the first month and a half of this season when Podkolzin teased that promise, not only as an offensive threat but as an effective forechecker. His work ethic is certainly never in question, and he leads the Oilers with 52 hits, which is a whopping 18 more than anyone else on the team.

So even as Podkolzin went goalless, the Moscow native made enough of an impression on Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch to not only remain in the lineup, suiting up for every game thus far but hold a spot on Edmonton’s second line, playing to the left of one of the league’s best centres in Draisaitl.

Draisaitl Raves About Podkolzin

Draisaitl’s sentiments might have a lot to do with that. The future Hall-of-Famer was beyond effusive when he spoke to the media after Saturday’s game, spending nearly three minutes heaping praise on Podkolzin.

“He’s a really, really good hockey player. He’s really underrated, and he does a lot of things that go unnoticed, that a lot of people that don’t understand hockey, they don’t pick up on it, but he’s a really underrated hockey player,” said Draisaitl.

“He’s smart and he passes the puck extremely well. He makes the right (play) almost every single time. On top of that, he works his (butt) off and he gets in on the forecheck, he’s hard to play against. When he creates turnovers, he has the puck and he makes the right play after, and I think that’s really underrated with him. He’s good on his backhand, so he’s very fun to play with,” Draisaitl said.

“He’s just a fantastic teammate. He’s done nothing but impress everyone in the room,” said Draisaitl. “He works extremely hard, tries to get better. Regardless of playing in our top six for a long time now – and (playing) really good hockey in our top six – he’s still out there early working on his game, so I’m extremely impressed by him.”

Podkolzin Gathers Momentum

Draisaitl also said that this game could “open the floodgates” for Podkolzin. The winger now has one goal and two assists in his last three games, which is equal to the number of points he totalled through Edmonton’s first 19 contests of 2024-25, and his most points in a three-game span since April 2022.

Clearly, Podkolzin is building some momentum. In that sense, it’s unfortunate that he’ll have to wait almost a week to play again, as the Oilers are off until Friday (Nov. 29), when they take on Utah Hockey Club in Salt Lake City. The Oilers will be hoping he can keep heating up.

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