Podkolzin's lack of production so far in 2020-21 is definitely concerning. As much as we can point the finger to his lack of ice time, being stuck behind older guys while playing for a coach who supposedly loves his veterans etc. eventually he has to put up numbers if he's to become who we want him to be. At some point talent pulls through - the cream rises to the top in spite of everything else.
Another issue is the lack of context surrounding his stats. We know for guys in the CHL that ideally you want to see them put up well north of 1.0 PPG in their D+2 season for them to maintain good odds of developing into an NHL top 6 forward. But what about in Russia? Take a look at this for instance:
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Above are the respective PPG for all Russian forwards drafted over the last 15 years who played at least their D+2 season in the RSL/KHL (this is also sorted by D+2 from highest PPG to lowest).
Obviously even a quick glance would tell you that the higher your PPG, the better the chances of you succeeding. Bona fide stars like Malkin, Tarasenko and Kuznetsov all scored well over 0.8 PPG in their D+2 season. Now I don't think anyone here expects Pod to turn out to be that calibre of player, so what about just top 6 forwards in general? That would include guys like Zherdev, Frolov, Buchnevich, Kulemin, Dadonov and Gusev who all range from PPG's of 0.2 to 0.78 with an average of 0.52.
Looking at where Pod is ranked doesn't exactly inspire confidence either. Other than Gusev, the closest comparables in terms of his PPG are all guys who flamed out and never made it. To me, ideally you're looking for him to produce somewhere in the range of 0.4-0.6 to start feeling better about his chances as the bucket of comparable players gets better as PPG increases. Would it be fair to use 0.5 as a rough baseline for what to expect from him in 2020-21?
Keeping in mind JV was big in Junior, Pod hasn't stopped growing or putting on muscle. As a 20 year old rookie playing in the NHL he may well find it tough at first but likely improve rapidly because he isn't coming straight from junior or even college. Even Rathbone hasn't been playing 28 year olds.He just turned 19 4 months ago, and he's playing with men. Bloody hell expectations are high around here. Lets wait and see how he does at the WJC when he goes back to playing against teenagers.
Finding Podkolzin's P/60 is one thing but you'd have to do the same for all the other players on that list which I'm not sure how since I don't know where to find TOI data for the Russian Super League. That would be the only way to do a fair comparison.I'd be curious to know how he compares when you look at P/60. Any chance you have they data?
I'd say Pod is giving off more an Angus Young energy with his look.Someday hockey players will finally popularize wearing toques with expensive suits.
Healthy scratch from rumors on Twitter but unverifiedUh oh.
Podz isnt in the lineup in his game right now. Neither is Morozov
Anyword if its health related ( half the team had Covid)
or if the young guns just got sent down to the VHL/MHL
Healthy scratch from rumors on Twitter but unverified
At least he will (should) get some games in NA this year.
The conspiracy theorist in me thinks that maybe they are trying to demoralize him to the point he thinks he is not good enough to play in the NHL, so he will stay in Russia.
I cannot wait until he leaves that f***ing team, and that league, basically destroyed at least one year of his development for no reason.
Wow..there's some heavy duty bullshit going on with Pod, and the fact he hasn't signed a KHL extension..He's certainly getting the run around..Tryamkin is a shot blocking machine..he's playing well.
Canucks prospects tracker: Podkolzin soldiers on, Tryamkin's block party | The Province
The important thing to note from that interview is what Podkolzin said when asked about his current coach Valery Bragin. All he said was, “I know him, and he knows me.”
After giving some praise to his other coaches he didn’t speak much on his current coach at SKA. He even went on to praise some of the work done by replacement coach Roman Rotenberg, who is an analytics specialist for the Russian national teams while also being employed by SKA.
Podz is not in the lineup again right now for SKA.
2nd game in a row he has been a healthy scratch.
The healthy scratch happened immidiately after the article was published in which Podz did not have good things to say about Bragin.
We are now starting to see first hand "The Russian Factor" and why it can be a gamble to draft players playing in Russsia. Russia seems more concerned about politics than actualy developing their prospects.
He's 0-2-2 in his last 15 games, and both of those assists came in the same game. He's averaging about 13 minutes/game over that stretch.
He isn't getting 3 minute games and no chance here. He's been given a long run with pretty decent minutes on a good team and hasn't produced at all. That he might be a healthy scratch should not be surprising. At some point the onus is on the player to actually deliver and excel.