The Edmonton Oilers have signed forward Vasily Podkolzin to a three-year contract extension with an annual average value of $2.95 million.

The Oilers acquired Podkolzin in a trade with the Canucks ahead of last season, when the Canucks elected to ship him off to Edmonton for a fourth round pick instead of risking him getting claimed off waivers and getting nothing in return for him. Podkolzin led the Oilers with 211 hits and was second among their forwards with 53 blocked shots, while averaging a career-high 13:13 of ice time per game last season.

The Canucks originally drafted Podkolzin with the 10th overall pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. After a promising rookie season in which he put up 26 points in 79 games, Podkolzin struggled to keep his spot in the NHL lineup. He bounced up and down from Abbotsford and Vancouver, and when he was with the NHL team, he wasn’t exactly given a clear role to fill, and would often find himself going up and down the lineup (when he wasn’t in the press box as a healthy scratch).

With the Oilers, Podkolzin got that role, spending most of his first season in Edmonton with Leon Draisaitl. While Podkolzin’s point production doesn’t scream top six player or “I’m playing with one of the best centres in the game”, Draisaitl spoke glowingly about Podkolzin once again just a couple of weeks ago.

“Podzy does a lot of things that people don’t really see,” Draisaitl said. “He does a lot of work for me, and it lets me have a lot of time with the puck and sets me up in great situations. I really love playing with him. He’s a great player. He’s really underrated with the puck and his hockey sense. He doesn’t need to score to be valuable.”

That vote of confidence from Draisaitl certainly didn’t hurt Podkolzin’s chances of being offered an extension in Edmonton, and that’s where it looks like he’ll be for the next three seasons.