Edmonton Oilers acquire replacement for Dylan Holloway from Vancouver Canucks

The team announced the move today on their social media platforms. In return for Podkolzin, the Canucks received a 4th round pick in the 2025 draft.

This move may be seen as confusing, as the Oilers are not really in need of depth forwards. Furthermore, Podkolzin played in just 19 games last season, recording two assists in the process. In fact, he has played a smaller and smaller role over time as his NHL career has gone on. His only full year in the NHL came during his rookie season in 2021-22 where he appeared in 79 games and had 26 points, including 14 goals. Since then, he has seemingly fallen out of favor with the Canucks organization, spending more time at the AHL level than with the NHL club.

However, the Oilers are currently in a tough spot as the St. Louis Blues recently signed defenseman Philip Broberg and forward Dylan Holloway to offer sheets.

Many have taken this as a sign that the Oilers plan on letting Holloway go to St. Louis. After all, the team only has two days left to match the offers to these players, and they have made zero progress in creating the cap relief needed to do so.

There have been rumors that the Oilers were actively attempting to create cap room to match the offers to their young players, but many of those rumors included the Canucks. Were those rumors real, or was it just this deal that got exaggerated? Now that the Oilers and Canucks have made a trade, it seems very unlikely that another one would come within a day. Otherwise, they would have just made one big deal right? So we can likely cross the Canucks off the list of teams that could help the Oilers by taking on salary. Granted, there are still opportunities out there for Stan Bowman to give himself the cap room he needs, but at this point, those moves are going to be very expensive. Perhaps he is thinking that it would simply be better to let both Holloway and Broberg walk in free agency. Regardless of what happens, we will have our answer soon, so stay tuned to see how this saga ends.

Source: HockeyReference
Vasily Podkolzin Career Statistics