Four Oilers who could become Edmonton’s next playoff hero

Now, the 22-year-old finally gets that chance to experience what it’s like to play in the postseason in his hometown, in front of a loud and rockin’ Rogers Place crowd.

That said, since the Olympic break,  Savoie has emerged as a legit top-line threat, developing chemistry with McDavid. In 23 games since then, he’s fourth on the team in total points with 16, third in shots with 53, and first on the team with 13 takeaways. And as one of the Oilers’ biggest offensive threats down the stretch, with heightened confidence, Savoie has the potential to be one of the team’s leaders in points this upcoming postseason.

Jack Roslovic

We know Jack Roslovic can be a bit streaky, but he reached the 20-goal plateau for the third time in his career this season, and with 21 goals in 68 games, he’s posted a career-best 0.31 goals-per-game rate and should be feeling good about his play overall heading into the playoffs.

Also, I feel Roslovic has it in him to put together one of the best streaky stretches of his career in the playoffs, which would likely be fueled by a lot of motivation.

One of the motivations is perhaps to change a bit of the narrative that he’s an inconsistent playoff performer, having been healthy scratched for six of the Carolina Hurricanes’ 15 playoff games last season, which was notable, considering he was one of their best five-on-five producers in the regular season.

And while he’s also one of the Oilers’ best scorers at five-on-five this season, where his 15 goals rank fourth on the team in five-on-five scoring, another big motivation for him is that he’s currently an unrestricted free agent after this season, and a big playoff performance could lead to bigger numbers on his next contract.

Roslovic has four points in his last six games, which includes scoring a breakaway beauty against the San Jose Sharks on April 8. If Draisaitl and Hyman remain out of the lineup longer than expected, the 29-year-old will continue to be put in positions to produce, making the chance of scoring timely playoff goals well within reach.

Trent Frederic

Earlier in the season, when things were at their worst, the 28-year-old Trent Frederic, at times, looked invisible on the ice, but much like Savoie, Frederic has looked like a different player for the better since the Olympic break.

Despite being sidelined for a few games, over his last 18 games, he’s tallied two goals and two assists. There’s obviously still room for improvement on his point production, but in that span, he’s second on the team in hits (58), second in penalties drawn (seven), and his underlying metrics align well with the eye test.

He’s helped tilt the ice for the Oilers, creating and sustaining momentum in the offensive zone, and the numbers support that. According to Natural Stat Trick, among Oilers who have played a minimum of 100 minutes since Feb. 25, his 60.06 expected goals percentage (xGF%) ranks sixth on the team, and his 58.90 high-danger chances for percentage (HDCF%) ranks seventh among forwards at five-on-five.

On top of that, it seems like playing with Colton Dach as of late has raised Frederic’s game even higher. The duo have played just under an hour together, and at five-on-five, their scoring chances are 31-19 with a 71.91 xGF%, while punishing the opposition with big hits shift after shift.

For Frederic, I’m not saying he can be a playoff hero like Pisani in the manner of piling up a ton of playoff points, but the way I can see him becoming a playoff X-factor is through some big, nasty hits and chipping in with timely scoring, because all the arrows have pointed upward for him recently.

Vasily Podkolzin

In conversations with Vasily Podkolzin’s skills coach, Ned Lukacevic, he mentioned that the Oilers forward feels like his coaches have confidence in him, the group has confidence in him, and that he feels like he belongs.

In combination with those factors, and with his own elevated confidence from setting a career-high in points and leading the team with 239 hits this season, I feel we’re going to see the very best of Podkolzin in the upcoming playoffs.

As mentioned, he’s set a career-high in points with 19 goals and 18 assists, and his 17 five-on-five goals are second best on the team behind McDavid’s 24. He’s also scored some pretty-looking goals this season, whether it’s picking corners or developing a silky scoring touch around the net, and with the final game of the regular season coming up on April 16th against the Vancouver Canucks, there wouldn’t be a better team to hit the 20-goal plateau for the first time against than the club that originally drafted him 10th overall in 2019.

Also, throughout the 2025–26 campaign, he’s played up and down the lineup, and with key injuries over the last three weeks, he’s shown that he can not only play sidekick to Draisaitl, but has also been a regular on the top line with McDavid during that span, and has the best goal share ratio at five-on-five with the captain among regular top-six players on the team, with a 14-7 goal share.

Oh, and let’s not forget that he was one of the best Oilers against the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final last season. Podkolzin finished third among Oilers forwards in points during the Florida series with four, trailing only Draisaitl’s eight and McDavid’s seven.

Podkolzin has always been a hard worker, and he’s come a long way from last season — his first as an Oiler, when he was still carving out his role — to this year, where the trust, confidence, and sense of belonging are all there.

That mix, along with his own confidence, should give Podkolzin a good chance this upcoming postseason to add to his already almost heroic status in Edmonton, with the potential for a playoff run full of posterized-type hits and putting plenty of pucks in the back of the net.