Post-Game Talk: 2019 NHL Draft, Day One | Podkolzin is our man

[Addison Rae]

Talent alone, where did you have him Pre-Draft?

I didn’t have a definitive list in order, but if you were to ask me before the draft it would probably look like this.

1. Kappo Kakko
2. Jack Hughes
3. Bowen Byram
4. Alex Turcotte
5. Cole Caufield
6. Trevor Zegras
7. Kirby Dach
8. Dylan Cozens
9. Matthew Boldy
10. Vasily Podkolzin
11. Cam York
12. Villie Heinola
13. Alex Newhook
14. Arthur Kaliyev
15. Moritz Seider

Probably controversial, but I don’t care. I’m a huge Cam York guy and if the Canucks didn’t take Hughes last year would have been completely fine with taking him at 10.

 

[geebaan]

Can we just talk about the fact Detroit took Seider 6th? Like wtf. They could have EASILY traded down and still got him.

 

[F A N]

Can we just talk about the fact Detroit took Seider 6th? Like wtf. They could have EASILY traded down and still got him.

I almost never fault a team for selecting the player they want. I had Seider as the 2nd best Dman in the draft. There were no guarantees and possibly no deals. The currency would have been at least a 2nd round pick. Even for the Canucks I wouldn’t have traded up by giving up the #40 unless there was a player they absolutely wanted.

 

[absolute garbage]

really like soderstrom but yikes

You have to give the Coyotes some credit for coming up with their own lists at least. Hayton was the surprise pick last year, now this. The question is are they actually smarter than everyone else? Could be. We all know teams are generally terrible at drafting. They are definitely not using the potato but something else though. We'll see how it goes. Would be cool if they hit homeruns with both of these guys.

 

[Jack Burton]

Left the fridge door open-check.
Left the oven on-check.
Didn't turn the propane bottle off-check.
Cat came back-check.
Fish is still kicking-check.
Why are there pistachio shells everywhere? I don't remember buying a bag of nuts-check.

All in all, a good night at the Burton household.

 

[Jack Burton]

Can we just talk about the fact Detroit took Seider 6th? Like wtf. They could have EASILY traded down and still got him.

Its sounds like they tried but couldn't find a willing partner.

Seider is an excellent prospect and I'm certainly not going to question Yzerman at the draft table.

 

[Bitz and Bites]

I almost never fault a team for selecting the player they want. I had Seider as the 2nd best Dman in the draft. There were no guarantees and possibly no deals. The currency would have been at least a 2nd round pick. Even for the Canucks I wouldn’t have traded up by giving up the #40 unless there was a player they absolutely wanted.

I’m not at all surprised that Seider went top 10,in fact I wouldn’t have been upset if we took him at 10.I thought at one time that he might be a good target in a trade back scenario but probably wouldn’t as he could go at any time.
I wonder where he was on the Canucks board...

 

[CloutierForVezina]

Fair enough, but this guy was rated 3rd overall earlier on. Do you think he was rated as highly as he was simply because of his floor?

I mean, Virtanen and Ritchie were rated 7/8 in the 2014 final TSN mock, so it's not outside the realm of reason. But even they were not considered top3 talents.

It's just an odd thing to have Podkolzin rated so highly if he does not have the ceiling to warrant it?

Pod has been a pretty intriguing case all year. As recently as April he was considered the "consensus No. 3" and there was talk about him being his own tier in the draft.

Scouts love the way he plays the game. Strong defensive work ethic, great skater, fantastic puck protection, decent shot, good physical tools.

Lack of production is a concern, but he has bounced around a lot of leagues this year and hasn't had much time to really get comfortable on a team where he gets the chance to play heavy minutes. Here's one article that goes into a little more depth about what he's done in each league this year. The only getting 3 minutes / game in the KHL certainly makes his 0p in 3 games more understandable.

The other main concern is that he 100% plans on playing out his contract in the KHL, which is another 2 years. Many people have made the argument that this doesn't really matter because a prospect like him probably needs 2 years before they're ready for the NHL anyways anyways, but this scared away a lot of people.

He's an interesting prospect. I personally wanted Newhook or Boldy but that was just because I never even considered Benning would be looking at Podkolzin.

 

[ForeverDrought]

Had a good time at the draft. I’m happy with our pick. Agree with everyone about the booing, it got old fast. I think one of the best moments was when Joe Sakic was on stage and the crowd was cheering very loudly and then they picked Byram and the crowd went crazy again.

 

[NoShowWilly]

looked at mckenzies list after I think pick 18 and all top 18 players were gone.

 

[racerjoe]

Left the fridge door open-check.
Left the oven on-check.
Didn't turn the propane bottle off-check.
Cat came back-check.
Fish is still kicking-check.
Why are there pistachio shells everywhere? I don't remember buying a bag of nuts-check.

All in all, a good night at the Burton household.

Your fish is kicking?!?

 

[Bertuzzzi44]

Podkolzin is a 200-foot menace. Easily the most abrasive of the top draft forwards. Go down the list — there is nobody with as much tenacity, temper and intensity. Combine that factor with his elite skill and IQ = Great pick.

 

[BenningHurtsMySoul]

Podkolzin is a 200-foot menace. Easily the most abrasive of the top draft forwards. Go down the list — there is nobody with as much tenacity, temper and intensity. Combine that factor with his elite skill and IQ! Great pick.

I would have been upset with picking him at 5 or at 10 with Zegras on the board, but he was the BPA. His production isn’t quite there, but we’ve seen what he can do when he’s on. His U-18 performance against USA was insane.

 

[Dab]

You have to give the Coyotes some credit for coming up with their own lists at least. Hayton was the surprise pick last year, now this. The question is are they actually smarter than everyone else? Could be. We all know teams are generally terrible at drafting. They are definitely not using the potato but something else though. We'll see how it goes. Would be cool if they hit homeruns with both of these guys.

Where have I seen that before?

 

[THE Green Man]

lmaoooo

It is funny when something like that happens to another fan base, but man that gave me a bit of the OJ VS MT pick flashback. For Flyers sake hopefully it does not bite them in the ass like it did us.

 

[biturbo19]

His production is absolutely a concern, if you compare it to players like Kuznetsov who dominated the same league it looks poor.

I think Podkolzin is one of those eye test darlings that scouts love and hope can eventually translate his strong tools with production. I think his U 18 tournament was a driving force in his ranking as well.

I never had him at 3, but fine with him at 10.

The other thing with Podkolzin, is that he did start the year with a bang. He actually was highly productive in a short sample at the Hlinka. It's just been everything since, where the production hasn't really lined up with the "tools" and projection. But i think that big start at the Hlinka really set him up on an unsustainable pedestal for a lot of scouts/lists. Hence, we saw a general falling trend with his rankings as he failed to live up to that early benchmark he set.