biturbo19
Registered User
- Jul 13, 2010
- 26,911
- 12,096
I was thinking of this in my last post but, to me, Soderstrom is behind Podkolzin. Podkolzin at least has an NHL role as a speed bottom-6 grinder. Soderstrom wasn't able to carve out any icetime on a bad Arizona defence and doesn't really have a role in the NHL.
Yeah. Podkolzin is a guy who has taken some big steps back and looked a bit lost in his development, but he's at least easier to project to an NHL role. He's at least shown some ability to play well at that level, before derailing pretty badly. He's also still got all the tools and traits you look for in a big complementary winger. There's upside there still. And you can see how he can play a role with that roster spot on your NHL team and at least not hurt you.
With Soderstrom...he's never even managed to find any real footing in the NHL. Being at that same sort of "do or die" waivers point, he's really tough to justify trading anything significant for, as a guy who you then have to keep on your NHL roster. Where he's just a small defenceman who hasn't really established himself as anything at that level.
He's intriguing because of the draft pedigree, some puck-moving upside, and the Swedish connection means he'll always be linked here...But i have a hard time seeing how he'd even really fit here. Obviously they could use some more mobility and puck movement from the back end, but it has to be a guy who can actually defend. And with Hughes and Hronek, he's not going to see Powerplay opportunity. I'm not really sure what he brings, since he's a liability defensively 5v5. Not really in the best spot to let a guy try to flounder his way out of it either. If he couldn't claw his way to anything on Arizona's junk blueline over the last couple years, that's a huge red flag. He hasn't been blocked for opportunities.
I do think there's some merit in the idea of trying to swap Hoglander for something along the lines of Soderstrom. And hoping that Podkolzin can backfill some of that loss of Hoggy. I just don't think that's a specific target that works. Perusing if there's an actual option out there...i come up mostly empty.