Time is now for Oilers’ Podkolzin to deliver on all that potential

EDMONTON — On a crew that misplaced extra youth and velocity than another over the summer season, Vasily Podkolzin represents an opportunity for the Edmonton Oilers to recoup.

Up to now, he appears to be like like a doable swap out for Dylan Holloway, misplaced alongside defenceman Phil Broberg to the St. Louis Blues’ completely timed Group II free agent seize.

The operative phrases there, after all, are “so far” and “possible.”

Podkolzin, who has three assists and watched what ought to have been his first objective slide extensive of a yawning cage Monday versus New Jersey, is teeming with potential. Which is to say, he hasn’t carried out something but.

However this man was all the time going to be a mission, proper? A primary-rounder who was deserted by the Vancouver Canucks, shed for a mere fourth-round draft decide, to a crew within the Pacific Division whom the Canucks could face within the playoffs for the foreseeable future.

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If that commerce alone is a head-scratcher (absolutely Vancouver may have discovered an Jap Convention crew prepared to half with a fourth for bundle of talent, dimension, velocity and physicality that is Podkolzin?) then the participant is not far behind.

Watching Podkolzin, 23, loosen up pucks for Leon Draisaitl on the forecheck, after which beat the wheels off of robust Nashville winger Jeremy Lauzon, you might have to be intrigued with the opportunity of what sort of participant Edmonton can have if they’ll crack the code that the Canucks had been unable to.

“Sometimes I need to create more and I need to be maybe a little more physical,” he mentioned, after enjoying 14:48 towards new Jersey with simply three pictures on objective to present for it. “I would like to find out how to be extra constant on this recreation, to be extra helpful for my linemates.

“Sometimes it is your turn, and sometimes it is not,” he mentioned of a luckless evening towards the Devils. “Tomorrow will be a new day.”

It’s a metaphor for his profession, that final assertion.

A tenth-overall decide in 2019 who spent two extra years enjoying in Russia earlier than coming over, Podkolzin and the Canucks couldn’t puzzle collectively the varied seemingly superior hockey traits he does possess, with those that had been missing and wanted enchancment.

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The outcome was worst-case state of affairs: A younger participant devoid of confidence, with just one method for it to be reclaimed. Shifting on to a second group.

Right here in Edmonton, we have now seen indicators of what Vancouver sought however couldn’t discover, and different traits that make you say, “I could see, after three years of watching this, how a team might move on.”

By means of 13 video games nonetheless, there was way more good than unhealthy. If it will get higher from right here — and that is truthful to anticipate — then a hard-shooting, bodily, 23-year-old winger stolen from a Division rival for a paltry fourth-round decide looks as if a hell of a deal.

“He does so many good things,” Oilers captain Connor McDavid mentioned this week. “He wins battles, retains the puck alive for that line (Draisaitl and Viktor Arvidsson). He makes nice little performs — the play to Leo (first objective, 20 seconds into the sport in Calgary) and the one (alongside the boards, digging out the puck) in Nashville within the first minute…

“Those are things that can go unnoticed sometimes, but when you’re playing with a guy like that (Draisaitl), it’s a lot of fun. He plays physical, works his tail off. He’s been great.”

Podkolzin initiatives, like Holloway, as a center six winger. On this crew, that means he and the injured Evander Kane will battle for the second-line spot subsequent to Draisaitl when Kane returns.

Two bodily left wingers in your center six, one a confirmed scorer and the opposite effervescent with potential to change into one himself, looks as if a fairly welcome state of affairs. Each have the abilities to step up to the highest line in a pinch, and each give the lineup some heft with the best way they play.

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“What we’ve really liked about Pods playing with (Draisaitl and Arvidsson) is he gets to the net,” mentioned head coach Kris Knoblauch. “You want a internet presence. There could also be a greater participant for that function on that line however everybody has to deliver one thing to the desk, and he goes to the web and that’s necessary when we have now possession within the offensive zone.

“Another thing I like is his creating turnovers off the forecheck. You look at the goal in Nashville and in Calgary. Those intangibles are really important.”

Intangibles. Potential. Projections.

All are good, however all are invisible.

It is time in Vasily Podkolzin’s profession to start to submit precise numbers, have precise success and make precise performs.

Anticipated targets are good. Actual targets, even higher.

“He’s a first-round pick for a reason. Confidence is half the battle, maybe even more,” mentioned McDavid. “On this league, everyone can skate, everyone could make performs and work arduous however for those who don’t trust that may be fairly robust.

“That’s something he’s searching for, but he should feel really good about himself now.”

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