“Vancouver has done absolutely nothing for the hockey player, whom it considers almost (its) property,” he wrote. “Canucks general manager Jim Benning has a nice touch about the forward’s growth and how he is expected in Canada. From the outside, he looks like a lawyer trying to justify the high pick of the 10th overall pick in the 2019 draft.”

If Zislis is trying to paint Benning as a snake oil salesman, the only thing he could point to is the jet black hair dye.

After all, it was SKA’s Rotenberg who called Podkolzin the ‘Russian Connor McDavid’ — not anyone from these parts.

Talk about hysteria.

The point of Zislis’ piece, which is making the rounds in Vancouver hockey circles, is that Podkolzin doesn’t score enough to be a future star — nor has he scored enough to deserve an increase in ice time with SKA.

Fair enough, for a player with two goals and four assists in 24 KHL games this season.

But the question remains: has Podkolzin played poorly enough to be scratched on a regular basis, demoted to the minors or benched for insufferable stretches this season? Even when he’s not scoring, Podkolzin appears to be contributing in every other way possible.

And while the Canucks have high hopes for a player whose on-ice strengths are a little more subtle than, say, an Elias Pettersson or a Quinn Hughes, the organization knows what kind of player it’s getting.

Earlier this month, Canucks Director of Player Personnel Chris Higgins detailed what the team expects from Podkolzin when he gets here next spring.