Toronto leading race for Vasily Podkolzin? Stan Bowman nears crucial decision
The Edmonton Oilers head into a thorny offseason, and Vasily Podkolzin sits right in the middle of it. Stan Bowman has decisions to make.
Edmonton finished 41-30-11 with 93 points and a first-round playoff exit. The cap math behind Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl leaves zero margin for sentimentality.
Podkolzin, 24, just posted career highs in his second year with the Oilers. 82 games. 19 goals, 18 assists, 37 points, plus-16.
He stayed productive in the playoffs too. 6 games, 3 goals, 3 assists, plus-5 before Edmonton was bounced.
That kind of two-way middle-six winger usually stays. But Edmonton is cap paralyzed, and the Toronto Maple Leafs are the obvious phone call.
Toronto finished 28th overall at 32-36-14, riding a 7-game losing streak into the offseason. Craig Berube needs scoring help under 30 years old. Podkolzin checks every box.
Why a Maccelli and Lorentz package fits both sides
Auston Matthews and William Nylander have made it loud all year that this roster needs more weight up front. Podkolzin brings the body, the forecheck, and the cheap term Edmonton signed him to.
A sign-and-trade framework around Matias Maccelli and Steven Lorentz is the kind of swap a desperate cap team makes. Toronto would be moving from skill to sandpaper.
Maccelli has 14 goals and 39 points in 71 games this season. He sits at minus-23 and has gone pointless in goals over his last 10. The fit in Toronto stalled fast.
Lorentz adds bottom-six reliability at $1.35M with a Stanley Cup ring from Florida. Edmonton needs that kind of veteran depth on the cheap.
Here is the rub. Podkolzin is exactly the player the Oilers should want to keep. He runs hot in the playoffs, kills penalties, and earns his minutes.
But Bowman walked into a roster with eight pending UFA forwards and almost no flexibility. Something has to move, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman are not the names going.
The two clubs have already split the season series 1-1, with Edmonton winning 6-3 in December and Toronto answering 5-2 in February. That history says nothing about chemistry. It says they know each other.
The bigger question is whether Bowman is bold enough to ship out a 24-year-old winger he just developed, in exchange for a smaller forward who hasn't worked out in his current city. That is the call sitting on his desk.
Toronto's top six can absorb Podkolzin tomorrow. Edmonton's checkbook may not give them another option.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 7, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Jordan Staal | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Shayne Gostisbehere | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Jordan Martinook | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Jalen Chatfield | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nikolaj Ehlers | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Trevor Zegras | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Emil Andrae | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Porter Martone | - | 1 | 1 | |
| K'Andre Miller | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Denver Barkey | - | - | - | |
| Jackson Blake | - | - | - | |
| Alex Bump | - | - | - | |
| William Carrier | - | - | - | |
| Sean Couturier | - | - | - | |
| Jamie Drysdale | - | - | - | |
| Christian Dvorak | - | - | - | |
| Tyson Foerster | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||