Edmonton Oilers star German forward Leon Draisaitl has had an ever evolving door of wingers in the decade he has been here. Yet, he seems to have achieved great success and recently achieving the milestone of 1000 points and becoming the103rd player to achieve that milestone.
Full credit to Leon’s talent to get to 1000 points without a consistent winger like Connor McDavid has in Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman or like Wayne Gretzky with Jari Kurri during the Oilers' dynasty run.
Last season, Kapenen showed a lot of positive signs that he can play and keep up with Leon as his winger. He seemed to understand where to be when playing with Draisaitl, who appears to trust having Kapenen on his line.
The return of Kapanen has sparked the Oilers
Kapenen’s knee injury early in the season had sidelined him for over three months, most of the season so far. His return to the lineup in early January has reunited him insider the Oilers' top-six with both Drasaitl and now McDavid where he has scored seven points (three goals, four assists) in eight games.
His speed is excellent, he has great hockey IQ and works hard on every shift. He saved a goal in the 3rd period against the Canucks on Saturday night that speaks to his defensive abilities and thus a plus-3 plus/minus rating. Not bad for playing 12-14 minutes a night.
He is quoted to have said that he is enjoying “The best days of my life right now,” after game 1 versus the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2025
Kapenen was the overtime hero in game 5 of the Western Conference semi-finals in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs to send the Oilers to the Western Conference Final. He has been a great addition and could evolve into a reliable winger for Draisaitl. Add Kapenen to the list of Finnish overtime playoff heroes for the Oilers such as Jari Kurri and Esa Tikkanen. As he gets back to full playing shape, he should have his best season as a member of the Edmonton Oilers.
Vasily Podkolzin on pace to set career highs
Vasily was drafted 10th overall by the Vancouver Canucks in 2019. Names such as Jack Hughes, Dylan Cozens, Phillip Broberg, Trevor Zegras were in this draft year with Connor McMichael of the Washington Capitals drafting at 25th in the first round.
He was a high draft pick that is now emerging into a great winger playing mainly on the second line. Leon has openly mentioned how much he has liked playing with Vasily. In 50 games played so far this year, he has scored 12 goals and 11 assists for 23 points. His time on ice has increased from 10:49 as a member of the Vancouver Canucks to over 14 minutes with the Edmonton Oilers.
His importance to the Oilers cannot be understated and the hope is that he continues to play with Leon and continues to score. He had 24 points in 82 games last year and will likely exceed that this year playing fewer games.
He has speed, good hockey IQ and appears to know what Leon will do and be in places where Leon will pass the puck to in a similar fashion to Kapenen. He is currently ranked seventh on the Oilers scoring list and I predict he will score more than 20 goals this year and be an important part of the Oilers playoff run in 2026.
Bowman's best signing in Jack Roslovic
Jack Roslovic was a late addition to the roster after training camp. He came with an interesting pedigree of scoring having had over 35 points with both the Columbus Blue Jackets and Carolina Hurricanes.
He is on track for over 20 goals this year and could get 25 or more goals. He ranks sixth on the Oilers scoring leaders with 22 points and 14 goals in 37 games at a cost of only $1.5 million (puckpedia.com). Jack has been a welcomed addition, similar to when we obtained Hyman from the Maple Leafs. He has played well on the McDavid and Draisaitl lines and we saw how impactful he was on a line with Savoie and Howard in the 6-0 win against the Canucks on Saturday night, scoring two goals in the second period.
The hope is that the Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch will play that line again as the played a great 5-5 game and were a threat every time they were on the ice. Granted we were playing the last place Canucks, but it showed that they can gain zone entry, pass to each other and control the play in the offensive zone and create high danger chances.
Roslovic consistently shoots on the net with more shots per game than most Oilers players on game night. If you do not shoot you do not score and Jack will get to over 25 goals before the end of the season. The loss of Leon for a few games may be what the Oilers needed at this time to explore some other line combinations in preparation for season stretch to the playoffs after the Olympic break. Jack Roslovic will be an important part of the offensive core for the Oilers in the next 4-6 months.
Oilers have tested new lines
Leon will be absent for the next week due to a family emergency. This will give Knoblauch and the Oilers coaching staff a chance for new line combinations that he may not have tried. It is very clear that Nugent-Hopkins and Hyman belong on the McDavid line.
However, the lines of Frederic-RNH-Kapanen, Howard-Roslovic-Savoie and Podkolzin-McDavid-Hyman worked well in the 6-0 win over the Canucks and all three lines contributed to the win. It will be interesting to test these lines in the next few games to explore if they really can work together.
It is obvious the Oilers need to have 3-4 scoring lines going as we get closer to the end of the season. Andrew Mangiapane was thought to be an important part of the Oilers offensive core but has not worked out and has been a regular healthy scratch for games. There is a lot of active discussions about where he might land and who we can get by the trade deadline (or sooner) to take his intended role on the top three lines.
There appears to be a lot of free agents this year that would be great additions. These include Alex Tuch (Buffalo Sabres), Artemi Panarin (New York Rangers), Nick Schmaltz (Utah Mammouth) and even Evander Kane (Vancouver Canucks). Edmonton does not have a lot of high end assets to trade but have some very good players that, if traded, could get more playing time on other teams.
Can the Oilers goalies be used as trade assets?
The Oilers find themselves in a peculiar position having three good goaltenders in Jarry, Ingram and Pickard. Based on statistics, our two best are Jarry and Ingram. They clearly have the better goals against average and save percentage and give you a chance to win every night. Pickard has proven that he can provide a solid performance in pressure situations.
However, he has struggled this year as described by several of our writers on Oil on Whyte. If an emotional or statistical choice to decide which goalie is traded, we have to follow the statistics to decide which goalies give us the best chance to win when the opponent cores three or less goals on us.
We know the McDavid and Draisaitl lines will get 3+ goals on any given night so it will be Jarry and Ingram will give you a chance to win with goals against average of less than 3.00. Pickard will do well on another team if given more games to play. He deserves that having been a back up most of his career.
The recent play of Conner Ungar playing so well in the ECHL with a 0.947 save percentage and 1.46 goals against average in 17 games for several teams this season, it seems that he might be the goalie of the future and for Bakersfield Condors. In his current stint the Condors, Ungar has been dominant in net.
If Pickard/Mangiapane are traded, that will give us a chance to get a player to fit into our everyday lineup and significantly contribute to the offense that is needed for the drive to the playoffs. March will be a critical month for the Oilers as they look for pieces to add to be a strong playoff contender this year.