Vancouver Canucks’ top prospect Vasili Podkolzin pots two assists in KHL game

With added ice time has come added pressure for Vasili Podkolzin to contribute offensively in the KHL.

On Wednesday he did that in a big way as his team SKA won 6-4.

Podkolzin had two assists on the day, one primary and one secondary. He skated well on Wednesday, getting 15:01 of ice time on 22 shifts.

It’s been an unusual start to the KHL season for the 19-year-old prospect. His KHL team has been riddled with Covid-19 and that has pushed Podkolzin up the lineup. He was finally given some time on a penalty killing unit in Wednesday’s game. He was also used on the second powerplay unit and even was out at the end of the game to defend a one goal lead which eventually turned into his team scoring an empty-net goal to ice the victory.

The first assist he got was a nice play all-around. He disrupted the play in the neutral zone which led to an odd-man rush as Podkolzin sent over a perfect pass that was finished by teammate Andrei Kuzmenko.

He was on the ice for three goals scored and one against in today’s game. The goal against was a tough one as it looked like he just missed the shot block.

One of the low key things I have really liked about his game is his shot blocking. He is absolutely fearless to get in front of any shot and typically does a great job closing up shooting lanes. He just missed this one.

Podkolzin’s second assist came later in the game. It was a bit of a weird goal as the defenceman shot the put and it bounced off the boards, then off the goaltender’s skate and in.

The KHL website went back to change the scoring play as they initially did not give Podkolzin an assist on the goal.

Podkolzin and SKA are back in action on Friday at 2am PST.

Can’t wait to ruin my sleep schedule for that one. We will have you covered all year long on Podkolzin updates.