Quinn’s Questions: Who Will Be Vancouver’s Best Russian?

Quinn’s Questions is a new, hopefully regular feature where you the fans tell us your thoughts, through your vote and hopefully in the comments, as well. It’s named after Quinn Hughes, Pat Quinn, or both, depending on your age and era.

The 2022-23 Canucks season will be marked in large part by Russian forwards. Ilya Mikheyev was the team’s marquee free agent signing, Andrei Kuzmenko drew a lot of excitement for finally giving the team a win. Podkolzin, a former top ten pick from 2019, impressed many last season, particularly late in the year.

There's a reasonable case to be made for any of the three. Mikheyev is certainly the most proven. He’s a speedster who, while perhaps no more than a middling scorer, could bring concrete improvement to the middle-six and most importantly, the penalty kill. He could quite easily have the most direct impact on the on-ice product, and he’s perhaps the safest bet. Kuzmenko, though, is a bit of a wildcard, and it would not shock me if he’s a genuine contributor in the top-six and the power play. Podkolzin, the one holdover from last season, falls somewhere in between. He could bring the same sort of stability as Mikheyev, with a bit of the dynamism some hope Kuzmenko will provide.

Personally, because of the way he bridges the gap (and because of how prospects experts rave about him, and always have), I’ll be voting for Podkolzin. That said, if the Canucks are successful, all three will likely need to be contributors, and each of the three has a reasonable case.

So, take your pick folks. What do we mean by “best”? That's up to you. Most impactful? Best scorer? Best Twitter gag? Debate away in the comments section.