Monday Mailbag: 30-point Podkolzin, NHL comparables, and the worst job you’ve ever worked

10 days away from training camp!

The grind of the offseason is about to shift into having an abundance of talking points as the team takes to the ice very soon. We even saw practices out at UBC this past week and this coming week, the Canucks will be out at Rogers Arena on their new ice for practice. It’s likely that we see some of Danila Klimovich in a Canucks jersey and continue to marvel at Vasily Podkolzin while the other Canucks file in from around the world.

One looming cloud that is getting darker and darker by the day is the contract status of Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes. Simply put, if you don’t want any type of distraction during training camp, the Canucks need to get the deals done this week for their two brightest stars.

The wheels are in motion on the contracts but we are still just in a waiting game. That being said, we have a bunch of questions to answer from the wonderful folks of Canucks Twitter, so, why waste any more time?

Let’s open up the bag and see what mail we have this week.

Danila Klimovich is one of the top two or three players that I am most excited to see at Canucks training camp. A final decision has not been made on where Klimovich is going to play and his agent is consistent in saying that Klimovich is coming to Vancouver to make the team. There is potential for him to make the Abbotsford Canucks and begin his career in the AHL — I just don’t see it happening.

The biggest reason why I am excited to see Klimovich at camp is to see how he looks compared to NHL competition. I don’t expect him to blow anyone away with his defence or hockey IQ but he should have some noteworthy rushes throughout camp and show some flashes of what he can do down the road.

The main reasons for Klimovich to go to the QMJHL are for him to develop his overall game in a structured environment and to have his entry-level contract slide a year or two as he plays in the QMJHL.

Here’s the thing about Klimovich going to the QMJHL. He better be damn good — as in the best player on the team good. If he is anything less than dominant in the QMJHL, this quick hit prospect turns into a long-term project very quickly. Klimovich is a big and strong kid and should be good enough to be physically dominant in a league of junior players.

For him, going to the Q is about learning how to control his emotions and work in a structured North American environment all while being the biggest scoring threat on his team.

It’s going to be a big year for Klimovich but I don’t think it happens in the AHL or NHL unless he just blows the doors off of the Abbotsford Centre at training camp.

I’ve been so busy with school starting up that I haven’t yet but I will definitely get to it this weekend.

From what I’ve heard, they did an amazing job telling the Trashers’ story and I was a big fan of the Untold’s “Malice at the Palace”. I saw that one a few weeks ago.

I’ll definitely get to Netflix sometime this week and see if the Trashers hype lives up to my high expectations.

I don’t think it will be live streamed anywhere unless there is a scrimmage on one of the days. Even for a scrimmage, it might not be live streamed.

The good news is that you’ll get a ton of video coverage here at CanucksArmy and on my Twitter feed as well. Anyone who’s been following me for the past three training camps know that we go hard on the video. We will try our hardest to have you covered!

Yes!

We will have a recap show from each day at training camp. Thursday, Friday and Saturday night will have a new episode with David Quadrelli, Harman Dayal and myself.

Give me the over. I think he will surprise people with his passing ability and will have 17-25 assists. His shot will be the big question mark but I bet he bangs home some loose pucks and has a few deflection goals. I’m taking the over on 30 points.

I used to work at a compost plant in Nanaimo. If you drive out to the Duke Point ferry terminal you smell it every time. It was by far the worst job ever. Coming in every morning to the worst smelling building in town and then having it heat up throughout the day was horrible. Every second Friday, we got truckloads of fish carcasses, guts and shrimp shells. We didn’t get paid very well, there were huge rats everywhere and we were so understaffed because nobody stuck around at that job. I don’t know how I did six months there. It was brutal.

That was by far the worst job I have ever worked.

Grande Prairie was pretty crappy too but at least they paid well and gave me a beautiful work truck.

It seems as though the term “NHL comparable” is quickly being taken out of the scouting community. I still think that there is some value to using an NHL comparable if you are talking about a certain player’s skill, like their one-timer, stickhandling, or skating ability.

The problem with the term “NHL comparable” is that it was overused on the NHL draft shows and comparing a player’s entire skill set to an NHL player’s skill set is just ridiculous. Players coming into the NHL are so different than they were even five years ago. There was no NHL comparable for Connor McDavid and even Quinn Hughes didn’t have a guy who he looked exactly similar to.

I would use an NHL comparable to speak on a prospect’s skill. Podkolzin is a good example, as he and Ryan Kesler have very similar playstyles on the power play. I’m not sure if Podkolzin will ever get to the point of scoring 15 power play goals in a season like Kesler did, but the comparable part of those two players is their ability to be net front presences who do more than just screen goalies. Podkolzin and Kesler both do a great job of being passing options as well as a thorn in goalies’ sides.

There’s a place for NHL comparables but a lot is off of playstyle or skill comparison, not so much about potential to me because that is near impossible to evaluate and be correct.

That wraps up another Monday mailbag! Thanks to everyone for sticking along for the offseason ride. Next Monday’s mailbag will set us up for training camp and we at CanucksArmy are so ready to get out to Abbotsford and kick off training camp!

See you all next Monday.