I don't think that is the case at all, the guy is very good along the wall and in a battle, something Jake still struggles very much with. He also seemingly knows how to get open in the offensive zone without the puck, Jake still doesn't seem to grasp this.
Feels like a very lazy comparison.
I think it comes down to his lack of production in league play and his russian contract. But take a boo on youtube at that league he plays in, it's freakin' garbage hockey with so much dead puck era hooking/holding it's tough to watch.
I'm not saying Podkolzin is like a "carbon copy" of Virtanen, they have a lot of different elements to them, obviously. But like Virtanen, he's got quite a bit of "straight line player" and "tunnel vision" to his game. A lot of the same sort of, "drive down the wing and take a shot or loop around" north-south, and skating himself out of opportunities. He is better than Virtanen along the wall and on the cycle. But i think there's still room to question how well he really sees the ice consistently.
Though you're probably right, in that a lot of people are just writing him off on box score scouting. That's pretty typical.
Virtanen was indeed a boom/bust. I remember Bob McKenzie saying he had the rare "grand slam" potential of size, speed and skill. Bob also ranked him 7th in his final rankings (Nylander and Ehlers were 9th and 10th, and Ritchie was ahead of Virtanen at 6th). I view the Virtanen pick as a swing for the fences that just ultimately didn't pan out (or hasn't yet, anyway).
Juolevi was a slightly different story. Still ranked in the Canucks' wheelhouse (Bob had him at 6th, Canucks drafted 5th) but the forward available - Tkachuk - was a dramatically superior prospect, and the Canucks reached for Juolevi based on positional need. IMO.
Yeah. Virtanen was always a swing for upside type pick. I think a lot of people got crossed up on the idea that as a toolsy guy, he had a seemingly higher "floor" as a 4th line crash and bang grinder at worst. But you don't pick in the Top-10 for "floor". He was the guy, because he had big upside as a freakish fast, physical goal-scorer. Hasn't really materialized, but that was obviously the "boom" scenario.
It's where the Russian factor carries some more risk with Podkolzin i think. If he's going to take time to really find a scoring touch at the NHL level when his tools no longer set him apart so much, and doesn't get the icetime and paydays, that's where guys like that seem to find their way back home. Like Nichushkin for example. Who also, unlike Virtanen...doesn't necessarily have the physical energy player game to plug right into that sort of role if it doesn't work out as a scorer either.
