The Vancouver Canucks traded Vasily Podkolzin to the Edmonton Oilers on August 18, 2024. In exchange, they got back an Ottawa Senators fourth-round pick.

Since that trade, Podkolzin has gone on to put up consecutive seasons of 24 and 37 points with the Oilers. More than that, he’s continued to develop into a true power forward, capable of not just fitting into Edmonton’s top-six but adding some unique and valued elements to it.

That alone would probably be enough to qualify this trade for the Regret-rospective, a new semi-regular column in which we break down the consequences of the most regrettable Canucks-related decisions in recent memory. But there’s a lot more to talk about than just the evolution of Podkolzin when it comes to discussing what ultimately became an extended Podkolzin-for-Evander Kane swap.

The Canucks waited a year to complete the shuffle. On June 25, 2025, just ahead of the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, Vancouver announced that they were sending that same Ottawa fourth-rounder back to Edmonton, this time in exchange for Kane and the final year of his $5.125 million AAV contract.

Enough of the 2025-26 season is now in the rear-view mirror that we can confidently say that Kane is not the reason for the Canucks’ overall struggles. But we can also say that he didn’t help much. Kane put up a fairly paltry 13 goals and 31 points through 71 games, easily the worst offensive production of his career. Worse than that, Kane proved an incredibly frustrating player due to his frequent play-killing, his ill-timed penalties, and his habit of visibly complaining whenever those ill-timed penalties were called.

Kane arrived with a lot of baggage and preconceived notions about him already present in the fanbase, so he was always ice-skating uphill when it came to winning over the fans. Still, Kane’s one year in Vancouver will go down as among the least popular in franchise history, and that’s really saying something.

There’s a reason the most effective April Fools’ prank to make the rounds this year was a post simply stating that Kane had been re-signed.

So, if we were to just look at this as an extended Podkolzin-for-Kane swap, there’d be plenty to regret already. But there are also further layers of that regret that deserve some further examination.

We should probably start with how the Canucks first attempted to replace Podkolzin in their own lineup. Or, more accurately, at the players they needed to trade Podkolzin in order to create space for.

It’s easy enough to say that Kiefer Sherwood arrived in the same offseason as Podkolzin departed, and thus Sherwood was the replacement for Podkolzin. And if that were the case, that’d be a fine enough thing. Sherwood turned heads in all the right ways in his season-and-a-half in Vancouver and was ultimately swapped out for two second-round picks.

But Sherwood was someone brought in to be a fourth liner who exceeded all reasonable expectations. He was never meant to be a Podkolzin replacement. Podkolzin was traded, for the most part, because it was thought that he needed a top-nine gig in order to develop further, but the Canucks had chosen to sign some other top-nine options instead for the 2024-25 season.

Chiefly, those top-nine options were Danton Heinen and Daniel Sprong.

One of those players would be traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the form of a cap dump. The other would be sent to the Seattle Kraken for future considerations.

And cutting bait on Podkolzin early, then replacing him with two relative duds, left the Canucks a little scrambly for more talent in their top-nine. That led, in part, to the Canucks targeting Drew O’Connor, who they brought in via that same trade that sent Heinen out. In total, it was a first-round pick (that ended up being 12^th overall), Heinen, Vincent Desharnais, and a prospect for O’Connor and Marcus Pettersson.

Had the Canucks held on to Podkolzin, one could imagine that they might not have felt the need to target O’Connor. Which is not to say that O’Connor has turned out poorly for the Canucks. Much the opposite – he’s probably been the more valued addition between him and Pettersson, overall, which is not what most expected at the time of the trade. But without the need to bring in someone like O’Connor, maybe the Canucks could have acquired Pettersson, or a similar defender, at a cheaper price. Maybe they could have held on to that 12^th overall pick, the most notable part of the JT Miller return, and used it on a valuable draft selection. Maybe.

In any case, the Canucks hit the 2025 offseason on the heels of an uber-disappointing campaign and now a little more desperate, with Quinn Hughes’ decision looming over their heads. Still feeling the need for more punch in that top-six – the exact sort of punch Podkolzin was now providing the Oilers – the Canucks made the choice to trade for Kane.

The whole thing really fed into itself, like an ouroboros of poor asset management and decision-making.

And now, in closing, we’ve got to really hammer home the “one that got away” angle on Podkolzin. Because in this case, the stats, as impressive as they might be, don’t tell the full story. Podkolzin’s eight goals and 24 points last season were fine enough, but they didn’t even match his rookie totals in Vancouver. His 19 goals and 37 points this season are new career-highs, but they don’t exactly scream “top-six” either. It’s only six more points than Kane himself got this year, after all.

So why has Podkolzin become a genuine fan-favourite in Edmonton?

One worthy of a three-year, $2.95 million AAV extension that hasn’t even kicked in yet, but is already thought to be a bargain?

Part of it is context. Podkolzin gets next to no power play time with the Oilers and still manages to put up consistent points. His 34 even-strength points this season are the sixth-most on his team and the fourth-most among Oilers forwards, behind Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Zach Hyman.

Speaking of Draisaitl, he’s been Podkolzin’s most frequent centre since arriving in Edmonton, and it might be tempting to label Podkolzin as a hanger-on or a coattail-rider. And, to be sure, there’s a real benefit that comes from lining up with a centre as good as Draisaitl. But there’s also a reason why the two have been stapled together, and it comes from the way Podkolzin has continued to play the game.

He was drafted as a potential power forward and always had the physical profile, but struggled to put anything resembling that together in Vancouver. In Edmonton, he’s found his power forward game, and in doing so, he’s managed to create a lot of space for the likes of Draisaitl. Podkolzin is making massive hits. He’s protecting the puck with his body. He’s dropping the gloves and chucking haymakers whenever anyone touches one of his superstar teammates. He’s putting up strong underlying numbers against top-flight competition on a nightly basis and has earned praise for his defensive coverage.

Most importantly, Podkolzin is beginning to truly drive play in his own regard. He’s had a number of dramatic end-to-end rushes resulting in goals this year, and a number of others where he’s taken the puck directly to the net to make something happen. Playing like this gives Draisaitl a lot more time and space to play his own, more patient game, and the results have been excellent.

Podkolzin will, unfortunately, never live up to the status of the guy drafted two spaces after him in 2019, that being Matt Boldy of the Minnesota Wild. But since arriving in Edmonton, he’s at least approached an average output for a 10^th overall selection. And, in any case, the Edmonton Oilers didn’t pick him 10^th overall, nor did they pick him over Boldy. They traded a fourth-round pick for him, a fourth-round pick they later got back as payment for their getting rid of Kane.

The regrets here belong purely to the Vancouver Canucks. And the fact that they’ve created such an uncomplicated win for the Oilers at the same time only adds to that regret.