Vancouver Canucks re-assign Vasily Podkolzin to AHL Abbotsford

The Vancouver Canucks have re-assigned forward Vasily Podkolzin to the American Hockey League’s Abbotsford Canucks, the club announced Wednesday morning.

Podkolzin, 22, appeared in two games with the Canucks during this most recent NHL recall, being held off the scoreboard and averaging 10:58 of ice time.

The Canucks originally selected Podkolzin with the No. 10 overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft. With him back down in Abbotsford, the Canucks now have one available NHL roster spot to use with the trade deadline two days away.

Podkolzin has 15 goals and 28 points in 44 American Hockey League games with the Abbotsford Canucks this season. He has previously skated in 118 NHL games during his young career.

Under the previous management regime headed by Jim Banning, the Canucks originally selected Podkolzin with the No. 10 overall pick in the first round of the 2019 NHL Draft.

The 6’1″ winger spent the first two seasons immediately after his draft year with SKA St. Petersburg in the Kontinental Hockey League. Podkolzin collected 11 points in 35 games with the club in the 2020-21 season; in the 2021 playoffs with SKA, he racked up six goals and 11 points in just 16 contests.

Podkolzin arrived in North America ahead of the 2021-22 season and quickly established himself as an NHL regular, amassing 14 goals and 26 points in 79 games that year. But he fell out of favour with the team in 2022-23, managing just seven points in 39 NHL games and ultimately being demoted to the AHL.

Through 118 career NHL games over parts of two seasons with Vancouver, Podkolzin has racked up 18 goals and 33 points. He’s added 22 goals and 46 points in 72 AHL contests with Abbotsford.

The Cancucks are heavily linked to Jake Guentzel as Friday’s NHL trade deadline looms, and obviously, Phil Kessel has long been rumoured to be joining the Canucks at some point this week. We will see where this goes, but for now, the Canucks have freed up a roster spot. Rick Dhaliwal of Donnie and Dhali — The Team reports that this move is unrelated to Dakota Joshua returning to the Canucks’ lineup.

UPDATE: Postmedia’s Patrick Johnston spoke with Jim Rutherford, who said the demotion is “paper work” related to making sure Podkolzin is eligible to play for Abbotsford during the Calder Cup playoffs.