Vancouver Canucks Made A Big Mistake in Completed Trade with the Edmonton Oilers
With the lack of production and playing time being given to forward Nils Hoglander, the Vancouver Canucks may have made a mistake trading away Vasily Podkolzin to the Edmonton Oilers for next to nothing.
The Vancouver Canucks are at an all-time low this season, losing 11 out of their last 15 games and the team looks completely and utterly dejected.
The same story rang true on Thursday night when the Canucks got handed a 5-1 loss at the hands of the Los Angeles Kings.
With the lack of ice time that head coach Rick Tocchet is willing to give former 20 goal scorer Nils Hoglander, it begs the question if Patrik Allvin made a big mistake trading away the wrong forward this offseason.
Vancouver Canucks made mistake trading away Vasily Podkolzin to the Edmonton Oilers?
Over the course of three season in the Vancouver Canucks organization, the former 2019, 10th Overall Pick was giving countless opportunities to show that he can be a top-6 forward in the NHL.
Unfortunately, he never seemed to find his game and bounced up and down from the AHL and NHL.
Although the trade is not an absolute mistake as Podkolzin is not setting the league on fire by any means, he s certainly outplaying Nils Hoglander, who has only 9 points in 41 games this season.
It was expected that Podkolzin would go to the Oilers and suffer the same fate, but it has been quite the opposite.
He has been given a bigger role under head coach Kris Knoblauch, playing consistently in the top-6 and appearing in all 45 games for the Oilers since his arrival.
With a respectable 6 goals and 12 assists for 18 points, Podkolzin is making his mark in other areas of the game, being physical, gritty and defensive minded, which has made he emerge as a Oilers fan favorite very quickly.
With how poorly Hoglander is playing, and the lack of confidence Tocchet has in him, it is starting to look like the Canucks made a mistake and traded the wrong forward away.
