I was at the forefront of saying Emberson wasn't good enough to be a top 4 d-man in the near term and also that Podkolzin did not have the same offensive upside as Holloway despite many arguing the contrary; now most people are agreeing with my prior takes and I feel have gone from overvaluing and overhyping these players to now thinking they aren't good enough altogether and don't belong on a team with serious cup aspirations. To me this is an overcorrection that often happens on these boards, extreme optimism to extreme pessimism, from what I've seen of each they've shown enough good qualities that I wouldn't yet say either one doesn't belong on a post trade deadline day Oiler's roster.
I see issues in the games of both players, but not to a large enough extent that I don't want to give them some leash and see what the coaches can do with them. What Podkolzin is bringing to the table already is pretty valuable, if he can continue to consistently do what he is presently doing and on top of that prove to be an asset to the PK and chip in about 15-ish points that is probably good enough to stay. For Emberson, I don't think the lines are as cut and dry since post deadline we'll likely have a new 2nd pairing d-man and the final D spot will be hotly contested between those that remain, but I will say he has higher upside than either Stecher or Dermott, the question is how much can we extract and how consistent will he be by the time we have to make the tough decisions.