Anytime you watch a former Vancouver Canucks player dash around the ice in the Stanley Cup Playoffs while your favourite team has been off for weeks, it’s easy to throw up your hands, shake your head and fist, and say “should’ve never got rid of that guy!”

That was the experience of my friend as we watched ex-Canuck Vasily Podkolzin set up the tying goal then score the go-ahead goal in less than five minutes during game two between the Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights.

The comment led to a debate between my friend and I: Did the Canucks give up on Vasily Podkolzin too early? I say no.

The Canucks, as you hopefully know by now, flipped Podkolzin to the Oilers in exchange for a fourth-round pick ahead of this season. The trade was made with a clear thought process. The Canucks had loaded up on wingers during the offseason, and all of a sudden, their forward group was a bit crowded. This meant that in all likelihood, Podkolzin, who was waiver eligible for the first time in his career, would be sent to the minors and in the process, almost certainly claimed on waivers.

Rather than lose him for nothing, the Canucks elected to let the Oilers jump the waiver queue to grab Podkolzin — the 10th overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft — for a fourth round pick.

At the time, few Canucks fans were up in arms about the transaction. Rather, it was mostly disappointment that the highly-touted draft pick hadn’t yet been able to figure it out in Vancouver by the age of 23.

This season, Podkolzin played in all 82 games for the Oilers, tallying eight goals and 16 assists. That production doesn’t exactly jump off the page, especially when you consider Podkolzin got up to 14 goals and 12 assists through three fewer games in his rookie season back in 2021-22. Additionally, those totals came with Podkolzin being deployed with this year’s likely Hart Trophy winner Leon Draisaitl.

In the playoffs — even in game two against Vegas when he tallied two points — Podkolzin has ranked at or near the bottom for ice time among Oilers forwards. This isn’t to slag on Podkolzin, it’s to illustrate that, although he has certainly had his moments during these playoffs, the Canucks didn’t miss out on some hidden gem when they traded Podkolzin. They traded a bottom six winger who went to Edmonton and put up solid bottom six winger numbers.

A much more interesting conversation to have is where the Canucks went wrong with their development of this player. Obviously the two years in Russia where Podkolzin was banished to the fourth line and press box during two very formative post-draft seasons was largely out of the Canucks’ control. But upon bringing him over, Podkolzin seemingly bounced up and down the lineup depending on how he was playing. There was room to make some mistakes, but to say Podkolzin had a clear role at any point when he was a Canuck wouldn’t be accurate.

Perhaps strangest of all was that Travis Green, Bruce Boudreau, and Rick Tocchet — the three coaches Podkolzin had in Vancouver — all felt that he shouldn’t kill penalties, despite that being something he’d done regularly in Russia. This season, Podkolzin was a mainstay on the Oilers’ PK, and did well in that role.

The Canucks didn’t give up on Podkolzin too early, but they may have missed the boat on developing him into anything beyond a bottom or middle six forward. What the Oilers have done is given Podkolzin the clear role he lacked in Vancouver, and it’s no surprise to see that’s helped them yield better results from him.

Can he take another step forward in his age 24 season in 2025-26? Maybe. At that point, maybe this is a different conversation.

But for now, it’s safe to say that no, the Canucks did not give up on Podkolzin too quickly.