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With the Edmonton Oilers buying and selling for Russian winger Vasily Podkolzin, the previous first-round decide of Vancouver Canucks on Sunday, is {that a} tip-off they received’t be matching the St. Louis provide sheet for Dylan Holloway?

Or is it simply because they see a high-pedigree participant they’re getting for chump change?

Giving up a fourth-round draft decide for Podkolzin, who was the most effective participant within the 2018 Hlinka-Gretzky Cup right here — the identical match  by which Oilers D-man Philip Broberg starred for Sweden — is nearly nothing. Podkolzin, the tenth participant taken within the 2019 draft, two picks after the Oilers selected Broberg, additionally comes low cost, signing a two-year contract with the Canucks this summer season at $1 million AAV.

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His wage is about what the Oilers have been providing their restricted free-agent Holloway final month till the Blues swept in final week with their $2.29-million AAV over two years for left winger Holloway and $4.58 million for Broberg. The Oilers have till Tuesday morning to resolve whether or not to match or stroll away on one or each.

Once more, perhaps the addition of Podkolzin, 23, is canopy in case they stroll away from Holloway and would fairly hold Broberg, though he’s twice as costly on a squeezed wage cap. There’s a thought the Oilers are nonetheless investigating buying and selling a veteran defenceman, both left D Brett Kulak, who has two years remaining at $2.75M AAV or proper D Cody Ceci at $3.25 million for this upcoming season, solely to liberate cash for Broberg. The sensation is Broberg and his agent Darren Ferris see him as a left D, though he performed proper D with Darnell Nurse within the playoffs. If that’s the case, perhaps Kulak is extra weak than Ceci.

Podkolzin has had a spotty begin to his NHL profession. The left-shot right-winger who appears like a backside six participant proper now, has performed 137 regular-season video games however this previous season he spent all however 19 video games within the AHL at Abbotsford. He’s had just one full season (2021-22) within the NHL (79 video games, 14 objectives, 26 factors).

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Podkolzin did play in two Canucks playoff video games towards the Oilers final spring, however these have been his solely two (7:47 ice-time in a single recreation, 9:16 in  the opposite). He had a few concussions the previous two seasons — as soon as from a struggle towards the Bruins, as soon as after a grimy hit in a recreation towards Colorado. He was a star as a junior however in Russia within the KHL he was a fourth-liner earlier than coming to the Canucks. He was principally a backside six winger in Vancouver, too, and couldn’t get any traction with coach Rick Tocchet this previous season.

Podkolzin is a robust winger, with some aptitude to his recreation, but it surely didn’t work with the Canucks, who’ve Brock Boeser and Jake DeBrusk as their high two RWs, together with Kiefer Sherwood and Daniel Sprong proper now. In his time in Vancouver, Podkolzin averaged 12 minutes a recreation.

In some methods, this commerce is akin to the Oilers buying and selling for Blues winger Klim Kostin, additionally a sputtering first-round draft decide ahead in 2022 (for Dmitry Samorukov). Kostin was an enormous physique, too, searching for a change of surroundings. He responded with 11 objectives right here however signed in Detroit in the summertime of 2023 and was traded to San Jose the place he’s now discovering his manner with the Sharks.

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