{"id":57370,"date":"2025-06-02T01:25:18","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T01:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/57370\/"},"modified":"2025-06-02T01:25:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T01:25:18","slug":"trading-vasily-podkolzin-wasnt-bad-not-drafting-matt-boldy-wasnt-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/57370\/","title":{"rendered":"Trading Vasily Podkolzin wasn’t bad. Not drafting Matt Boldy wasn’t good"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vasily Podkolzin<\/a> is in the Stanley Cup Final.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a testament to second-chance tenacity for the affable winger, who initially teased of potential with the Vancouver Canucks<\/a>, but struggled to find consistency in decision-making and finish. He beat himself up mentally and was demoted to Abbotsford of the AHL, where he rebuilt his game and confidence.<\/p>\n

Somebody obviously noticed.<\/p>\n

One school of thought is did the Canucks give up on the winger too fast by trading him to the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> last August for a fourth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft?<\/p>\n

The answer is no. They got what they could for Podkolzin, who had two assists in 19 games last season and 15 goals in 44 AHL outings, which seldom equates to NHL success. And Podkolzin wouldn\u2019t have been waiver-exempt this season on a club that added wingers.<\/p>\n

Third-line menace Kiefer Sherwood led the NHL in hits the season with 462 and had a career-high 19 goals on a bargain US$1.5 million salary cap hit. He is 30 but is everything the Canucks need in that lineup position to push, lead by example, and also be a key penalty-kill component.<\/p>\n

Podkolzin has become a serviceable third-liner for the Oilers, but that\u2019s not the career projection for any 10th overall pick. He did manage eight goals and 16 assists this season in 82 games, and has had effective playoff playmaking moments, but where does he project?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s hard on the forecheck, he\u2019s able to make a nice pass on the breakout and goes to the net when it\u2019s in the offensive zone,\u201d said encouraged Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch.<\/p>\n

Podkolzin had three head coaches in Vancouver \u2014 Travis Green, Bruce Boudreau, Rick Tocchet<\/a> \u2014 and systems varied as much as expectations. Green and Tocchet were tough, Boudreau was encouraging. Maybe it\u2019s why departed bench boss Tocchet called Podkolzin a bull and a moose. He wasn\u2019t quite sure what he had.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he plays predictable hockey, he\u2019ll be good,\u201d said Tocchet. \u201cIf he knows exactly where the puck is going, that\u2019s where the moose comes in. If he\u2019s waiting to go, he\u2019s standing around. And he\u2019ll be late everywhere. He needs to be aggressive and not read the play after it happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Former Canucks right-winger Vasily Podkolzin keeps his eye on puck against the Stars in Dallas on March 25, 2023.<\/p>\n

At 23, age is on Podkolzin\u2019s side, and so is understanding career ascension is seldom a straight line. He could have pouted when demoted by the Canucks last season but found needed perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first two weeks were really hard,\u201d Podkolzin told Postmedia. \u201cYou start thinking too much. \u2018What should I do? What\u2019s happening?\u2019 I had two ways to go. Give up or work. It was good for me to get AHL games to remember who you are and start appreciating.\u201d<\/p>\n

A more important and pressing query is what were the Canucks thinking at the Rogers Arena<\/a> draft table in 2019? There must have a been debate.<\/p>\n

They passed on enticing options \u2014 especially with a bumper crop of U.S. National Development Team prospects accounting for three of the first nine picks and seven of the first 15 \u2014 but made the surprise selection of Podkolzin.<\/p>\n

It was somewhat stunning because highly-coveted USNTDP right-winger Matt Boldy was sitting there and taken two picks later by the Minnesota Wild. After his rookie season of 39 points (15-24) in 47 games, compared to 26 points (14-12) for Podkolzin in 79 games, Boldy took off.<\/p>\n

He had 31, 29 and 27 goals respectively the following three seasons and point totals of 63, 69 and 73. That\u2019s nearly a point-per-game pace of 244 in 285 games, the true measure of potency and consistency plus future promise.<\/p>\n

Boldy became a first-liner for the Wild, was on the U.S. roster for the 4 Nations Face-Off and could warrant Olympic team consideration. Team scouting efficiency is a pick piling up 200 career NHL games for its club. Podkolzin had 137 here and Boldy already has 285 with the Wild.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Wild winger Matt Boldy celebrates his power-play goal and first career hat trick Feb. 14, 2022 at St. Paul, Minn.<\/p>\n

The Canucks have had limited success with drafting forwards 10th overall. They got three successive 20-goal seasons from 1975 pick Rick Blight. They also traded rookie Cody Hodgson, a 2008 selection, after he amassed 16 goals in 63 games in 2011-12.<\/p>\n

The kicker in all this what-could-have-been hindsight is the current status of Canucks unrestricted right-winger Brock Boeser<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He will test the market July 1 and could leave a considerable scoring void, unless he pivots back to the Canucks, which is hard to fathom. After a concussion, too much drama, odd management optics at the trade deadline, and still managing 25 goals, he may need a change of scenery.<\/p>\n

Boeser, 28, is looking for term and salary and there\u2019s a gap between a five-year offer and the seven he covets. The money isn\u2019t as big a stumbling block as term.<\/p>\n

AFP Analytics projects Boeser could get a six-year deal at $8.5 million annually in free agency. The Canucks offered $8 million so the gap isn\u2019t huge. If that\u2019s still too rich, free agent Nikolaj Ehlers could get six years at $8.1 million annually, if he doesn\u2019t re-sign with the Winnipeg Jets.<\/p>\n

bkuzma@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vasily Podkolzin is in the Stanley Cup Final. It\u2019s a testament to second-chance tenacity for the affable winger,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5128],"tags":[305,882,894,11890,147,146,5,6386,799,38,4,794,1446,824,893,27,5313,1588,18,1531],"class_list":{"0":"post-57370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vancouver-canucks","8":"tag-brock-boeser","9":"tag-bruce-boudreau","10":"tag-canucks","11":"tag-cody-hodgson","12":"tag-dallas-stars","13":"tag-edmonton-oilers","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-kiefer-sherwood","16":"tag-matt-boldy","17":"tag-minnesota-wild","18":"tag-nhl","19":"tag-nikolaj-ehlers","20":"tag-rick-tocchet","21":"tag-travis-green","22":"tag-vancouver","23":"tag-vancouver-canucks","24":"tag-vancouvercanucks","25":"tag-vasily-podkolzin","26":"tag-winnipeg-jets","27":"tag-wyatt-johnston"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/114611167171033794","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}