At around the same time last year, I projected Vasily Podkolzin’s point total for the 2025-26 campaign at 37 points, and I was right on the money in his second season with the Edmonton Oilers.

For 2026-27, I’m going a little bolder and saying the Muscle from Moscow will hit the 50-point plateau for the first time.

A 13-point increase might seem like a lot, and it is. But he increased his points by 13 from 2024-25 to last year, and considering how hard Podkolzin trains and puts in countless hours of practice to perfect his craft, based on that alone, don’t you think he can do it again?

Podkolzin’s offseason work has me believing he can reach 50 points

But I have other reasons to believe that Podkolzin can hit that 50-point plateau. One of them is the early signs from the captain’s skate, where he was skating alongside Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, that he’ll once again be given an opportunity to thrive on the top lines. And after talking with his skills coach, Ned Lukacevic, about the work they did this offseason, I’m even more convinced that 50 points is within his reach.

Firstly, I can try to convey as much as I can about Lukacevic’s tone, and how fired up he gets when he talks about ‘Pods,’ but trying to convey that through writing doesn’t do it justice. I also get fired up every single time I hear the coach’s praise over the phone about Podkolzin’s progression.

Lukacevic and Podkolzin trained together this past offseason, and when I talked to him last month, he mentioned that their one-on-one sessions included drills that focused on a lot of wall work, puck handling and shooting, to name a few. This offseason was the first one where they trained extensively with the Power Edge Pro training aid, which aimed at improving Podkolzin’s agility.

One thing that really caught my attention is that Lukacevic mentioned this is the first time they really focused on working on one-timers. More specifically, he mentioned that Podkolzin made it a point to shoot those one-timers as Draisaitl does.

seanpangs

@seanpangs

·Follow

Ned Lukacevic sent me a peek at him and Vasily Podkolzin working on one-timers. Nobody does it quite like Draisaitl from........

© Oilers Nation