Could Vasily Podkolzin at center be the answer to making the Canucks top-9 work?

With no trades in sight, the Vancouver Canucks are currently expected to enter the 2022-23 season with an absolutely overwhelmed forward corps.

Elias Pettersson, JT Miller, Brock Boeser, Bo Horvat, Conor Garland, Vasily Podkolzin, Ilya Mikheyev, Andrey Kuzmenko, Tanner Pearson and Nils Höglander are all looking for time in the top-6. That’s ten forwards fighting for six spots, and then you’ve got Curtis Lazar, Dakota Joshua, Jason Dickinson, Will Lockwood and more in the bottom six mix.

In a vacuum, having too much talent in the forward shouldn’t be a bad thing. But under the auspices of a salary cap and given the comparative weakness of Vancouver’s Blueline, it’s a luxury the Canucks can’t really afford. Ideally, they would be able to shuffle out a forward or two, shuffle in a defender or two, and call it a day. But it’s never that easy.

Removing a key to the front will disrupt chemistry in some way. And if that forward is JT Miller or Conor Garland — the Canucks’ two most rumored trade chips and the two most effective forwards at 5v5 last season — the Canucks will look to fill a huge gap in existing talent.

Enter: Vasily Podkolzin, middle of the third line?

The idea of ​​moving Podkolzin to the middle of the ice has come up before, but never very seriously. After all, last season was the 21-year-old’s first in North America, so the focus was all on his transition. Now that he’s been looking more and more comfortable for a full year, maybe it’s time to experiment.

On the surface, Podkolzin has a lot of what NHL teams look for in a center six. He has size and serious power. He’s a pretty effective skater, if not a great accelerator. He is defensively responsible and can always look at the ice from a two-way perspective. A skilled playmaker, he has a lot to cover off the net and in the slot, and he’s getting better and better at making good use of his teammates.

For a while, Podkolzin also looked like he would be a reference horse and win his first three big league draws. He finished the season spot on with 8/19, but the potential for Podkolzin to become more skilled is definitely still there. His hands are the rare combination of huge and fast, which along with his big physique are essentially the holy trinity of winning faceoffs.

Of course, someone has to teach Podkolzin how to win a draw, in addition to all the other subtleties of the center game. He has rarely done so in the past, almost always when playing for the Russian national team.

From earlier in the half: Vasili Podkolzin won the face-off, got a shot in the net and then leveled Ilvari Rasanen in just a few seconds. #NHLDraft #U18 pic.twitter.com/lL91SSqZsk

— Steven Ellis (@StevenEllisTHN) February 8, 2019

There were even instances last season when Podkolzin had to work a little more in the middle than usual while standing in line with winger-like centers in Pettersson and Dickinson. While not on the top scorer list, he has effectively tried and succeeded in some aspects of the center position at the NHL level.

From Dobber’s Frozen Tools

But here’s the key quality that could set Podkolzin apart from the average winger trying to become a centre: he’s incredibly trainable. Throughout his career, Podkolzin has been praised for studying the game quickly and avidly, and this was evident last season in both his ever-improving game on the ice and his understanding of the English language off the ice.

Almost every coach who has had the pleasure of working with Podkolzin has spoken of his modesty and malleability. And we know Canucks staff in particular believe it’s at least possible for a big winger to move center based on Juraj Slafkovsky’s idea in the pre-draft interviews.

Estimated runner-up overall Slafkovsky says the Canucks interviewed him and asked if he could play center https://t.co/5t37NybBNo #Canucks #NHL

— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) June 3, 2022

The learning curve from winger to center would be high. That’s why few ever make the transition. But if anyone could handle that learning curve, Podkolzin certainly has the right attitude and behavior to pull it off.

Can it really hurt to try? Because the benefits could be significant.

As a center, imagine Podkolzin being used in half-frequency matchups against top 6 opponents, especially teams with larger centers. In doing so, he would relieve Bo Horvat of some of the responsibility and open up more offensive options for the captain.

Let’s imagine for a moment that Miller is traded away sometime between now and the 2023 trade deadline, and that no notable forwards join the team in the meantime. Could something like this work?

Kuzmenko-Pettersson-Boeser: A highly skilled and tenacious topline.

Mikheyev-Horvat-Garland: A second line impossible to contain.

Pearson-Podkolzin-Höglander: A responsible third line with lots of offensive pop.

Lockwood/Dickinson-Joshua-Lazar: One of the best fourth rows in the game.

With the Canucks landing down the middle, it’s hard to imagine a better fit than Podkolzin at that moment. Jason Dickinson was tried in this role and failed. Curtis Lazar and Dakota Joshua are options, but their profiles lend themselves much better to an energy line. Spending assets on additional forwards is currently likely to be avoided.

Any time the solution to a roster problem can be found in-house, it must be counted as a win, and the Canucks could be sitting on a big win in Podkolzin’s seeming center potential.

And if it doesn’t work? What if Podkolzin tries to move to the middle but doesn’t succeed?

Oh well. We anticipate the Canucks will have to settle for Podkolzin remaining in its current state as a top-six quality all-around power winger.

hard break.