Prospect Info: Vasili Podkolzin

[krutovsdonut]

It's ridiculous really. And should shine a pretty bright light on why production is hard to come by in a bad league that plays crummy non entertaining low skill hockey.

The low man on the list of 50 is at .914 We praised the pants off Markstrom last year for .912

It's wild.

it cuts both ways for pod. a poor scoring environment helps explain his scoring to a point, but raises the question of why he cannot rise above. it also begs the question of what he is getting out of the experience of playing there. you have to imagine the coaching and development is pretty bad.

he's an 18 year old kid who looked great against chl players so i am going to cling to that.

 

[Diversification]

So... players shoot the puck right at the goalie in the VHL? Float weak unscreened perimeter wristers at the net? Elite goaltenders?

I’m going to go with novelty sized equipment.

 

[4Twenty]

it cuts both ways for pod. a poor scoring environment helps explain his scoring to a point, but raises the question of why he cannot rise above. it also begs the question of what he is getting out of the experience of playing there. you have to imagine the coaching and development is pretty bad.

he's an 18 year old kid who looked great against chl players so i am going to cling to that.

SKA has one of the best skill development coaches in the world. I'm not too worried about developing his skills over there.

I understand the production questions, but from everything I've ever seen or heard about these leagues, they are very low level hockey. If Podkolzin changed his game to produce more it wouldn't make him a better NHL prospect IMO. That league and style do not mimic NHL hockey at all.

He might not have the skill level we all hope, but I have no doubts he's going to be a fun player to watch when he gets over here.

 

[Hyzer]

To be fair, SKA is owned by Gazprom, a huge petroleum company connected to the Russian government, so they're just toys for oligarchs. They usually get the best players and the best coaches because they have unlimited budget

 

[Lindgren]

Podkolzin was not in the line-up today for SKA.

 

[Billy Kvcmu]

Podkolzin was not in the line-up today for SKA.

Healthy scratched? Injured?
Won’t be the first time a KHL team healthy Scratched a young player that they know won’t be here in a couple years

 

[Lindgren]

Healthy scratched? Injured?
Won’t be the first time a KHL team healthy Scratched a young player that they know won’t be here in a couple years

I presumed he was out of the line-up and playing at a lower level. This issue has been discussed quite a bit earlier in the thread. There's reason to believe the plan for his development is fine.

 

[Hyzer]

Vasily is not playing in the St Petersburg KHL game today.

CSKA Moscow vs SKA St Petersburg is on right now, as of 8:30pst. Vasily will not be playing and did not dress. There is no VHL game for SKA-NEVA today.

Vasily's next game is probably tomorrow, December 3rd, 2019 at 8am PST. it is SKA-Neva of the VHL vs Dynamo TV

 

[Siludin]

Someone should just snipe www.whereispodkolzinplayingnext.com at this point

 

[Hyzer]

Another 0 point game, -1, 12 minutes TOI for SKA-NEVA of the VHL vs a pretty low team on the standings.

Guy just can't score or produce. It's not looking good that he does not score, but he's also only getting 12 minutes of ice time even in the VHL.

 

[Dab]

Why would any team invest in a player that won’t be around in a couple years? Unless he’s of super star caliber he isn’t worth spending a lot of time training and giving ice time too.
The KHL- NHL need to work something better than this out.

 

[Melvin]

Another 0 point game, -1, 12 minutes TOI for SKA-NEVA of the VHL vs a pretty low team on the standings.

Guy just can't score or produce. It's not looking good that he does not score, but he's also only getting 12 minutes of ice time even in the VHL.

The fact that he's not getting much ice time even at that level is definitely concerning.

This is looking like a pretty risky pick, given the lack of control the canucks have over his development, especially considering the first round pick they traded away.

 

[DonnyNucker]

The fact that he's not getting much ice time even at that level is definitely concerning.

This is looking like a pretty risky pick, given the lack of control the canucks have over his development, especially considering the first round pick they traded away.

It was an awful pick and an unnecessary risk. The amount of excuses for this kids lack of productivity is bewildering. Sucks because we were so close to Zegras.

 

[Grantham]

I still think we have hope in him. But my pick Boldy isn't looking too hot either. Caufield was my 2nd and he looks legit.

 

[Love]

Are people actually giving up on him already? At least wait until he plays some NHL games before you do that lol.

Also, as much as I don’t like using the WJC as a primary evaluation tool, I think it will be nice for all of us Canucks fans to at least be able to watch him for once and it being against his peers is even better.

 

[tantalum]

I don’t think people are writing them off. They are looking at his progression versus historical benchmarks and are concerned. And that given the lack of control over his development for the first couple of years doesn’t help this concerns. Season is still young though.

 

[Melvin]

I don’t think people are writing them off. They are looking at his progression versus historical benchmarks and are concerned. And that given the lack of control over his development for the first couple of years doesn’t help this concerns. Season is still young though.

If the Canucks aren't concerned that their number 1 pick isn't getting icetime then they are negligent. One of the things sports teams covet is the control of the development of their players. This is of course something you relinquish in some aspects when you draft a Russian, but you can't tell me they're happy with him sitting on the bench getting one 30 second shift in a game or playing 10 minutes in a lower league. I don't care how many points he has but if he doesn't start getting some ice time soon I think it's a big problem.

 

[Melvin]

I still think we have hope in him. But my pick Boldy isn't looking too hot either. Caufield was my 2nd and he looks legit.

Early returns on this draft are pretty underwhelming all around, really. Who is really standing out right now? Kakko and Hughes are doing OK in the NHL. Byram has 3 goals...

At least the guy I wanted to trade down for is leading the OHL in scoring.

 

[Catamarca Livin]

I saw an article that he got around 10 minutes the last 2 khl games. That is an improvement.

 

[Hit the post]

I saw an article that he got around 10 minutes the last 2 khl games. That is an improvement.

I thought he is currently in the a lower level league (VHL)?

 

[Didalee Hed]

Time will obviously tell who was right and wrong, but my heart sank through the floor when anaheim took Zegras one pick before vancouver. Who they would have taken given the choice I don’t know.

 

[F A N]

If the Canucks aren't concerned that their number 1 pick isn't getting icetime then they are negligent. One of the things sports teams covet is the control of the development of their players. This is of course something you relinquish in some aspects when you draft a Russian, but you can't tell me they're happy with him sitting on the bench getting one 30 second shift in a game or playing 10 minutes in a lower league. I don't care how many points he has but if he doesn't start getting some ice time soon I think it's a big problem.

The Canucks are negligent if they aren’t concerned? Lol... ok...

You know teams don’t have much control over NCAA players either. If anything, I think teams have more control and access to their prospects playing in European pro leagues than they do with their NCAA prospects.

 

[Diamonddog01]

Time will obviously tell who was right and wrong, but my heart sank through the floor when anaheim took Zegras one pick before vancouver. Who they would have taken given the choice I don’t know.

That’s how I felt as well. So f***ing close...I thought the Pod pick was a reasonable gamble but it was most definitely a gamble. Obviously still early days but the lack of production does not bode well.

 

[Krnuckfan]

The Canucks are negligent if they aren’t concerned? Lol... ok...

You know teams don’t have much control over NCAA players either. If anything, I think teams have more control and access to their prospects playing in European pro leagues than they do with their NCAA prospects.

Benning is a moron no doubt, but even a moron like benning knows that prospects need icetime to play and develop. This has nothing to do with KHL vs NCAA or whatever. If a prospect is not getting icetime, the management group should rightly be concerned.

 

[krutovsdonut]

we are watching a gamble pick play out in real time, and these are definitely the dog days with a long time before he gets here and the confusion of not knowing whether an 18 year old kid is getting what he needs.

pod was a homerun swing rated higher but available precisely because of the issue we are now seeing, and also the further issue that russian guys are hard to bring over and keep over, especially if they do not live up to high expectations quickly.

at the time of the draft there was a stronger than rumour story that a tentative trade with colorado involving barrie and the pod pick was there to be made but we had a guy we would take if still available.

so from that i infer we were very high on the guy, and that it wasn't the russian scout or one guy, but a strong consensus of scouts that was able to convince the owner. because the owner sure as hell wanted us to make a big trade right then and there.

so think of pod being a guy we really really wanted and also us getting us miller instead of barrie , and maybe the gamble feels better. i dunno.