{"id":167445,"date":"2025-09-25T02:33:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T02:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/167445\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T02:33:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T02:33:14","slug":"oilers-vasily-podkolzin-to-take-leave-of-absence-after-fathers-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/167445\/","title":{"rendered":"Oilers\u2019 Vasily Podkolzin to take leave of absence after father\u2019s death"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">On Wednesday, the <a class=\"text-secondary underline underline-offset-2\" href=\"https:\/\/oilersnation.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" hreflang=\"en\">Edmonton Oilers<\/a> announced that forward Vasily Podkolzin will be taking a leave of absence. It comes after his father, Alexander, suddenly passed away on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">\u201cThe Oilers extend heartfelt condolences to Podkolzin and his family during this difficult time,\u201d <a class=\"text-secondary underline underline-offset-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/oilers\/news\/release-podkolzin-to-take-leave-of-absence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" hreflang=\"en\">the team said in a release<\/a>. Podkolzin is returning to his family\u2019s home in Russia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">The news comes just a day removed from Podkolzin <a class=\"text-secondary underline underline-offset-2\" hreflang=\"en\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyfaceoff.com\/news\/edmonton-oilers-sign-vasily-podkolzin-three-year-contract-extension-nhl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">signing a three-year contract extension<\/a>, in which the 24-year-old will carry an AAV of $2.95 million through the 2028-29 campaign. <\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">Podkolzin was traded to the Oilers last August by the <a class=\"text-secondary underline underline-offset-2\" href=\"https:\/\/canucksarmy.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" hreflang=\"en\">Vancouver Canucks<\/a>. It came just a few months after signing his latest contract. He came to Edmonton not long after the\u00a0<a class=\"text-secondary underline underline-offset-2\" hreflang=\"en\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyfaceoff.com\/teams\/st-louis-blues\/line-combinations\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">St. Louis Blues<\/a> signed <a class=\"text-secondary underline underline-offset-2\" hreflang=\"en\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyfaceoff.com\/news\/blues-tender-offer-sheets-to-oilers-philip-broberg-dylan-holloway\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oilers lost forward Dylan Holloway<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">Podkolzin might not have brought the same type of offensive firepower that Holloway has, but he proved to be a crucial player in Edmonton\u2019s forward group. He appeared in the most games in his NHL career last year, playing in all 82 games. The Moscow native scored eight goals and 16 assists for 24 points, totaling 48 minutes in penalties. He also posted three goals and seven assists for 10 points in the postseason, as the Oilers made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, only to lose to the\u00a0<a class=\"text-secondary underline underline-offset-2\" hreflang=\"en\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyfaceoff.com\/teams\/florida-panthers\/line-combinations\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Florida Panthers<\/a>\u00a0for the second year in a row.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">It was the 24-year-old\u2019s first full season in the NHL since his rookie season with the Canucks in 2021-22, having split the previous two seasons with Vancouver and its American Hockey League affiliate, the Abbotsford Canucks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">Across four seasons, Podkolzin has appeared in 219 NHL regular-season games, scoring 26 goals and 33 assists for 59 points.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">Prior to his North American pro career, Podkolzin represented his home nation in various tournaments. He played for Russia at the IIHF World Junior Championship three times, taking home the silver medal in 2020 and the bronze in 2019. He also won silver at the 2019 IIHF Under-18 Men\u2019s World Championship, and bronze at the 2018 Hlinka Gretzky Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Wednesday, the Edmonton Oilers announced that forward Vasily Podkolzin will be taking a leave of absence. It&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-167445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}