As expected. Pretty much every Canucks fan paying attention, fully expected him to basically get the "Hoglander special" contract extension. Which is exactly what this is here.
Whether he goes crazy and pays off huge like Hoglander's deal, remains to be seen, and is fairly unlikely. But the Canucks are going to really need cheap depth to offset some of the other big contracts they'll be signing/starting, plus OEL buyout...and just a lot of guys to re-sign in general.
Podkolzin looks like an NHL bottom-6er again of late, so he's not a bad buy at $1M in that respect. But unlike most cheaper depth FAs you could sign to pad out a roster, Podkolzin does still have at least a reasonable shred of "upside". If he can be a 15G+ bottom-6/middle-6 complementary guy with some physicality and defensively responsible, that'd be huge on a cheap $1M deal. Much less if he starts to become the actual middle-6 complementary 20G+ sort of player over the course of this contract.
And there's very little downside. Can more or less bury it if you need to because he regresses super hard again. It's also an easily moveable "reclamation project" contract anyway. So worst case, you can always just unload it that way to a team looking for a cheap filler with size and former draft pedigree.
Effectively no risk. Potentially big reward.